Mario's Existential Nightmare
by Micah Rodney
Summary: Mario is a plumber in a broken down city under mob rule. Or is he a brave adventurer in a world at the brink of war? The reality of his situation fading back and forth, awash the drugs he takes to dull the pains of one world, and the horrors that seem to plague him in the other. With pieces of each world beginning to crash into each other, which is real, and does it even matter?
1. World 1-1: Inversion

**Mario's Existential Nightmare**

by: Jason Tandro

World 1-1: Inversion

 _5:00 AM_

The alarm rings with a familiar and shrill electronic whine. The red digits spell out the time, and the world around them slowly comes into focus. Then moments later the world is a blur again and Mario is hunched over the edge of his bed, expelling the memories of the previous night in a decidedly physical form.

He wipes his mouth and drags himself to the small bathroom around the corner from his room. The florescent bulb flickers on with an irritating buzz. He took a small moment to thank his slum lord for the water – the only free thing in the entire city – and turned on the spicket. A small lukewarm stream bubbled out just enough to get Mario's hands slightly damp before it cut out. He'd forgotten they were working on the water main this morning. He used what little was there to clean his mouth before taking a bit of hair of the dog and polishing it off with some mouthwash.

He took down the medicine cabinet and saw with a bit of comfort the small ziplock baggie sitting in the roughly carved hole. There were still a few left. He shoved the cabinet back in place and started to piece himself back together. Red collar shirt, denim overalls, work gloves that used to be white but were now stained an unattractive and altogether indescribable color. And of course, the red baseball cap with the logo for his homegrown plumbing company.

He looked at himself in the mirror one last time. With a bitter mockery of the tagline for his first television commerical, back when he still had dreams, he said with arms outstretched.

"It's-a me, Mario!"

 _7:00 AM_

"Mario Brothers Plumbing, how can I help you?"

Daisy's cheery voice was the honey to Mario's vinegar. She got them customers, and he fixed their problems. Occasionally he was helped by his little brother, Luigi. The kid was a bit of a screw up, but his heart was in the right place.

Daisy ended her call and turned to Mario. "Didn't have time to shave today, Mr. Saltare?"

Mario cringed slightly, but replied simply without facing her. "Water main broke. I'm gonna use the john."

He shut himself in to the small employee bathroom and set to work finishing the morning's futile labor. He shaved away most of his five o'clock shadow with a straight razor, though it wasn't his best work – it was a dry shave after all. He took another gargle of mouthwash and straightened his brown hair. It wasn't great, and he thought he saw a grey hair but it would all look okay under the cap anyways.

When he stepped out he saw his brother, clean-shaven except for the trademark Saltare mustache. He was young, lean and by the way he was drowning in Daisy's lips still quite good-looking.

"Morning, Mario," Luigi said, with a nervous sort of smile.

"Hmmm," Mario grunted in greeting. "We got one, Daisy?"

Daisy nodded. "Snake-job for a Mr. Kirby. He's on Avenue A."

"What the guy can't figure out how to use a damned plunger," Mario groaned. "Half my customers are idiots, and the other half are rich idiots."

"Well they keep us in business, bro. You want me to take it?" Luigi asked.

Mario knew Luigi was trying to be helpful and he decided he may as well let the kid do some work.

"Yeah, you take it, I'll wait for the next one," Mario said. He tossed Luigi the keys to their service van. "And pick me up a coffee on the way back."

"Sure thing!" Luigi said, before heading out the side door into the garage.

Daisy sat at her desk, fiddling with a small wind-up tinker toy shaped like a bomb – a novelty gift from some vendor who sold drain cleaner. The clock ticked away. The sound of the industrial AC whirred noisily. The world was so god damned loud.

"I'm going into the office," Mario said. "Let me know when Luigi gets back, would ya?"

"Sure thing, boss," Daisy said with a nod.

The office was little more than a closet with a desk in it. There was still a shelf overhead but the rack had been removed. Mario could fit in it and maybe one other person, if they hunched over slightly. It didn't matter. Mario was the only one ever in here and the small space suited him well enough.

He pulled out the baggie and reached inside, grabbing the small foul looking fungi. A simple morning, things would be better sooner. He leaned back in his chair and waited for reality to fade.

 _9:00 AM_

Mario awoke on a patch of soft green grass, his head still leaning against the green warp pipe he'd fell asleep next to.

"Hey, Mario!" Luigi shouted as he ran over towards him. "What are you doing sleeping out here on such a nice day?"

Mario looked around. It was a nice day. Blue skies, puffy white clouds. The sun shining brightly on the Mushroom Kingdom. He saw his house up ahead. Of course it was his house. He and Luigi shared it, a small brick structure with a modest yard; though Luigi often said that the entirety of the Donut Plains were their backyard.

"I don't remember coming out here," Mario said honestly, taking off his bright red cap and scratching his head slightly.

"You just need something to eat, come here and let me put some lunch on, eh Mario?" Luigi laughed, patting his brother on the back. "Better yet, let's go to Toad's Place. He'll get you fixed right up."

A sudden flash of memories coursed through Mario's head. Toad, a small squat mushroom person with a bright white and red stalk for a head. He wore a blue vest and puffy white pants, often obscured by his chef's apron. While there were many like him in the world, Toad was special. He was a good friend of the Mario brothers. But why was all this coming back to him now? Why was he recalling things that he'd known his entire life? It was as if something was siphoning away his memories; or perhaps pulling them out of his mind only to let go and have them bounce back into place.

His head started to hurt again and he wondered if he hadn't gone to sleep of his own accord. They walked down the path of the Donut Plains towards the unimaginatively named Toadville. It was named not for their friend Toad, but rather one of his forebears, the adventurer Captain Toad who settled the wilds beyond the Toadstool Castle. In his time he had called the land "Dinosaur Land", named for the unique reptilian inhabitants of the land. With the settling of the land by the royal family in those days, it had all become part of the Mushroom Kingdom. Donut Plains was at the southern-most tip of the kingdom, and it was where Mario and Luigi had enjoyed a fair degree of peace and quiet in these turbulent times.

"Did you hear?" Asked one of the diner patrons as the brothers walked in. "They say Bowser has declared war on the Mushroom Kingdom."

"I wonder what Princess Peach is gonna do about it?" Asked another. "I heard Bowser lives far to the north of the kingdom across the Dark Sea. How will he even get here."

"Well," said Toad, always in the know. "If you believe the rumors, Bowser supposedly has a huge fleet of ships that can fly on the air."

"Oh nonsense," The first patron scoffed "Ships that float on water, sure, but flying machines?"

"Well, it's just a rumor," Toad shrugged. He turned to the brothers, finally noticing them. "Mario! Luigi! Take a seat anywhere you like I'll be right with you! Just the usual today?"

"You betcha, Toad!" Luigi called cheerily.

The two sat down at a booth and within moments Toad was bringing out two large plates of spaghetti and garlic bread with some chopped mushrooms and meatballs. The plate smelled heavenly and Mario only just realized now how hungry he was.

"You're a master chef, Toad!" Luigi gave him a thumbs up as he reached for his fork.

Luigi then gave Mario a nod. It took him a second to realize he was waiting for him to pull out payment. Mario reached into his overalls and pulled out several gold coins and handed ten of them to Toad. This was their ritual for lunch, almost every other day they were in here. Koopa Coins. He'd forgotten everything about them. The gold coins, mined by the tribe of Koopa and used as currency for... why? Why was everything he'd ever known slipping away from him.

"Mario? Are you alright?" Luigi asked.

"I don't... I don't feel so..."

 _10:00 AM_

"Mario!" Luigi smacked Mario's face lightly. He looked down and saw the coffee in front of him in a small plastic cup, and beside it was their meal, each of them were eating a modest grilled cheese sandwich.

"Hey, Mario, if you're gonna puke it up, at least do it outside, or you might hurt my feelings," Toad laughed.

Mario turned to see Toad, the balding old fat chef wearing an apron. He clearly didn't bother to shave this morning either, at least properly. There was a bit of an edge to him sure, like everybody who grew up in the city, but Toad was a good guy. One of Mario and Luigi's oldest – and only – friends.

"How did we get here?" Mario asked, looking around the dive that could only be charitably described as a diner. Smoke hung in the air, the sound of a jukebox and the sights of neon lighting assaulted Mario's senses.

"You... said you wanted to go to Toad's place. You seemed kind of out of it, thought you were hungry or something," Luigi said. "Hey, you need to see a doctor or something?"

Mario shook his head as the world began to right itself. This was what he remembered, every waking moment of it. "Uh... yeah. I mean no, no, I'm fine. Just one of those mornings I guess."

A sudden moment of panic overtook Mario.

"You came into the office?" Mario asked.

Luigi shook his head. "No, you were hanging out front with daisy. You seemed in really good mood at the time. Mario, you're scaring me here."

"I didn't sleep good, I think I've just been... sort of fading in and out you know," Mario knew it was a weak excuse. He began to panic then for something else entirely, but a quick search of his overalls pockets abated his fears. His grubby hands met the plastic wrap. All was right with the world for now.

"We can take our meal to go, let's get back to the shop, alright bro?" Luigi said, standing up and putting their sandwiches in a box that Toad had brought over sometime in the eternity between the last words he had spoken. Mario stood up and looked over his shoulder.

There was a piece of garlic bread sitting on the edge of his plate.

"Luigi, did you forget some texas toast or something?" Mario asked.

Luigi walked back over to the plate. He looked down at the garlic bread and then back to Mario. There was a strange expression on his face. An unreadable mask between confusion and annoyance.

"Let's go back to shop, Mario. Don't worry about it," he said, walking past his brother.

Mario stood for a moment but eventually he turned and followed Luigi.

"Yeah Bowser Airlines," came the voice of some drunken patron. "Everybody knows some mob boss runs that shit show."

"You really wanna run your mouth?" Asked another in a borderline threatening tone. "This is a bad city to say stupid shit in."

 _Flying machines_ , Mario thought for a moment. He turned back to the table and the garlic bread was gone.


	2. World 1-2: Subversion

**World 1-2: Subversion**

 _1:00 PM_

Mario tried to make sense of the strange trip. It wasn't strange that he for what seemed like hours had been visiting another world in his mind, a technicolor landscape of fantastical inhabitants. But that he had somehow left the closet under its influence and had been lucid enough – or rather, seemed lucid enough – to not alert his brother and receptionist to anything odd until he began to come down.

The fact that pieces of the real world were intruding in his fantasy was also nothing unusual, but they'd never before now left pieces of themselves behind, regardless how brief it was. He just assumed that the batch was going bad and he was having a worse reaction than usual. Or perhaps it was starting to have a permanent effect on his mind.

Long term damage. That was a cheery thought. And his company health care sucked.

It had been a quiet day after all. Since their first snake job they'd had nothing to do all day. Daisy was playing some puzzle game on the company computer and Luigi was watching day time soap on the small black and white TV in the lobby. Mario decided to step out of the office and try to make some sense of the rest of the day.

"Hey boss. Feeling better?" Daisy asked.

"Yeah. I think I ate something bad last night," Mario shrugged. He sat down in a chair next to Luigi. "Everything okay with Toad?"

"Yeah, he was just worried about you. You want you lunch? I put it in the fridge," Luigi gestured towards the back of the shop where a small rusty fridge and a microwave which was there mostly for show sat.

Mario shook his head. "Nah, I think I'd better lay off eating for a while. I'll have a big dinner."

That meant he would microwave ten chicken fingers instead of eight.

The irritating chatter of unreasonably wealthy socialites stopped and was replaced by a familiar jingle. A ten years younger and infinitely cheerier Mario began to sing that obnoxious song that he thought would drive business to him.

" _If there's stuff,  
stuck in your pipes,  
pick up the phone and call,  
Plumber Mario!"  
_

Twenty seconds of idiotic dancing and poorly cut together shots of himself later the whole thing ended with that infuriating phrase. "It's-a me, Mario!"

"If old Mama Saltare could see what her boys have been up to now, eh Luigi?" Mario sighed, heading over to the kitchenette to grab a soda.

"Nobody's mother wants them to grow up to be a plumber, but somebody's gotta do the dirty work, right bro?" Luigi was trying to be cheery, but the day had definitely taken it's toll on even him. 

Everything in the city was dirty work. Even if a job seemed respectable there was always some horrible catch to it. Perhaps that was the nature of life itself. Everybody is just choosing what high horse they want to die on.

"I got in this business for the money. Back when we used to have customers," Mario groaned. "I got the bank eating me alive on this shit box and a crummy landlord chewing on the other end for my apartment."

"Hey we'll get something. Sooner or later somebody flushes a towel or something," Luigi said.

"Yeah. I'm not a even a vulture. Vulture's make their money off of somebody else's misfortune. I am dung beetle. I make my money off of their shit," Mario popped the bottlecap off his soda and began to drink it down. Even the soda for all its sweetness was a pain. The carbonation stung his throat. The sugar hurt his fillings. The glass bottle hit a cold sore.

The phone rang and Daisy answered. She, somehow, remained cheery as ever. "Mario Brothers Plumbing, this is Daisy! How may I help you?"

Luigi raised his right hand towards Daisy as if to say "I told you so."

"Oh, that's perfectly fine. Good bye!" Daisy hung up the phone and turned with her first hint of a sardonic smirk. "Wrong number."

Mario returned the gesture to Luigi. " _I_ told _you_ so."

After a few moments, however, there was another call. And this time, it appeared to be a legitimate customer.

"Two phone calls in ten minutes," Mario said. "My heart can barely take the excitement."

"Okay, boys. This is a big job. One of the pipes in the Mayorial Estate broke and water on the entire east wing of the house is now down, and one of the rooms is flooded," Daisy said.

"Government gig?" Mario asked. He looked around his uncomfortably tiny workspace. "And they called _us?"_

"Apparently all the city's workers are currently fixing the water main by your place so they need to hire you," Daisy said.

"Now tell me there ain't somebody upstairs who likes you?" Luigi said, patting Mario's shoulder and letting out a modest indoor cheer.

"Sounds more like there's somebody downstairs who really hates the Mayor. What's this broad's name again? Patricia. Pauline, some P name."

"Peach Todesco. Former owner of Todesco Inc which was bought out by Bowser Enterprises and surprisingly the year after that merger took place she won the election," Daisy said. "What I'm getting at is that she's in the pocket of the mob, so maybe do us all a favor and don't make any mistakes?"

"Great. Just what I need. I suppose it wouldn't be a good idea to cancel the job either?" Mario asked.

"Hey, we'll be okay. Like this guy's gonna notice some two-bit plumbers. And the money is good," Luigi said.

The answer was obviously "no". Mario took a quick look around the workspace again and noticed that more than ever it seemed small and confined – a prison cell that he'd pieced together himself. His heart began to race and he breathing became difficult.

"I'm gonna go take a leak then. I think it'll be a while before we can," Mario said. He tried to make his way into the bathroom but had trouble shutting the door with his shaking hands. When the door was finally shut he puked once more. This wasn't from the mob connection – everything in this city was connected to the mob. But a sudden feeling of being trapped was overtaking him. And he would have to be down in the pipes of that huge mansion all day. This was going to be a rough afternoon.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the baggie again. He just needed to take the edge off, that was it. Just something to calm him down a little bit so he could focus on his work. His lips met the fungi, and his mind took a vacation.


	3. World 1-3: Digression

**World 1-3: Digression**

 _2:00 PM_

Mario and Luigi walked down the path north of Toadville towards the imposing mountain in the distance. At the top he could see the old fortresses that dotted the peaks, but that was not their destination. At the base of the mountain was an enormous iron door which led to the treasures within. The mines where the inhabitants of the southern lands obtained the varied magical gemstones used in all sorts of magicks. The white shine of these gems led the place to be dubbed the Vanilla Dome.

"I can't believe how lucky we are. To be summoned to the palace of Princess Toadstool herself," Luigi said, patting his chest with pride.

Mario had a bit of a better understanding of his surroundings than he had earlier, but there was still something vaguely off about everything. A dreamlike haze that enveloped his reality at the moment. The verdant plains began to thin as they grew near to the mountain. A ruined castle – remnant of the war that had claimed this territory, stood between them and the entrance.

"So we get through the Vanilla Dome and then what?" Mario asked.

"There's a dock on the north side of the dome where we can catch a ferry," Luigi explained. "It'll take us to a fishing village on the south side of the northern continent."

He began to fiddle with his map as he tried to make heads and tails of the strange writing that seemed to cover every inch of the parchment that wasn't dedicated to the lay of the land.

"The world is a vast place, Luigi," Mario sighed. "And we have a long way to go yet."

"I guess that's true, big bro," Luigi replied, shrugging and giving up the map for a lost cause. He furled it up and put it back in his pockets.

They walked over the ruined rubble of the castle. A great explosion from within had seen the end of this great structure. Some of the bricks still showed sear marks from the flames. Others had been blasted into shrapnel and only the shards remained. The ones that were otherwise intact were covered in moss and vines as nature tried to reclaim the land the castle had taken.

"You must feel like you're in a rut, Mario," Luigi said.

"What do you mean?" Mario asked. "We're on our way to the Princess's Castle right now. If anything we're leaving the rut behind."

"One castle, eh? That's all it takes to bring you back to your old happy self?" Luigi chuckled, an odd hollowness sapping the emotion behind it.

"Now I'm starting to worry about you," Mario said.

The great iron door to the Vanilla Dome was before them. Somehow they had cleared the distance between the ruins and the door in what felt like mere minutes. They swung open with a low creak tha echoed throughout the vast chamber within. Miles of open cave and mining tunnels within. A darkness lit only by the white shimmer of the magical gemstones.

"Are you afraid?" Luigi asked.

"Afraid of what?" Mario replied, suddenly filled with a dread that he'd never felt before, much less around his own brother.

"Afraid that the next time you go into the dark, you won't come out the other side," Luigi said simply.

Only it wasn't Luigi. There was a shadow in his place. A large reptilian head, an enormous shelled body. There was something else there that wasn't his brother, speaking to him through – or perhaps in place of – Luigi.

"Who are you?" Mario demanded. He reached into his pocket, but he was missing his power mushroom. His hands only felt a few koopa coins.

"Your time is running out, Mario. I just wanted to see you one last time before the cycle completes. You've been through this so many times before. Each recursion you get lost a little more. This will be the end of you and I want you to remember that I was the one who put you here," the creature let out a hideous shrieking laugh.

The doors to the dome shut behind Mario. Darkness overtook him and where once there was a shadow there were only the two glowing red eyes of the beast that had claimed Luigi. He felt a sharp claw carve into his right arm.

 _2:00 PM_

Mario awoke as the van came to a halt. He looked to his left and saw Luigi putting the vehicle in park. He met Mario's gaze and let out a small chuckle.

"You shoulda had more coffee bro. Falling asleep on the job like that?" Luigi teased, opening his door.

Mario opened his own and felt a surge of pain in his arm. His shirt sleeve was covered in blood. He rolled up his shirt as far as he could and saw a massive gouge in his arm.

"Luigi!" Mario shouted. "Help!"

He didn't know what else to shout. Luigi rounded the van and looked perplexed.

"Did you trip or something?" He asked.

"No, damn it, can't you see my-"

Mario looked down to highlight the pulsing wound in his arm. Except there was none. There was a tiny cut and a small dribble of blood, but far from the enormous life-threatening fountain he'd seen before.

"A little dramatic, eh?" Luigi replied, reaching into his work bag and pulling out a small first aid kit.

He applied the small bandage without another word. Luigi had apparently decided to just roll with whatever else Mario had to offer today and for his part Mario thought that was for the best. So far two miracles had occurred today and he wasn't looking forward to the next three hours worth of explaining whatever else his mind had in store for him.

He had decided to take some mushrooms to calm himself down – and that clearly did not work. He was more on edge than ever before. This became even worse when he remembered another horrific part of his dream. He reached into his overalls pockets for the baggie, but it was missing. He might have left it in the bathroom, out in the open and if Daisy discovered it.

"Hey... I think I left something back at the office, any chance we can head back?" Mario asked.

"It can't be that important and besides it took us 45 minutes to get here. All our tools are in the van, whatever you need we probably have," Luigi explained.

"I guess you're right," Mario replied leaning back against the van.

Well. If Daisy _did_ find his stash there was always the chance he could deny it. That's assuming he left it in there and hadn't hidden it someplace else where sober him couldn't find it. He supposed there was nothing to do for it now but to do his job and worry internally for the next several hours.

"Come on, Mario, let's get to work," Luigi said, opening the back doors of the van.


	4. World 1-4: Recursion

**World 1-4: Regression**

 _2:30 PM_

After spending about fifteen minutes being searched for any potential weapons, bombs or other problematic contraband, they were finally allowed into the Mayoral Estate. They were greeted by an older gentlemen with a thick mustache wearing a formal brown suit. Were it not for his trappings and accent he could almost be mistaken for Toad's father – they had the same piercing green eyes, the same smooth complexion and the same short stature.

"Welcome gentlemen, thank you for coming out on such short notice. I am certain you all are keeping quite busy," he said in jovial tones, his hands moving animatedly as he spoke.

"Oh you know us. There's always some dirty work to be done in this city," Luigi said, feeling a kindred spirit to this overly excited man.

Mario just grunted as he was led to the source of the catastrophic plumbing failure. This was bound to be a pain in more ways than one and his work day ended no later than 6 PM, big government job or not.

"So will we get to meet the mayor today?" Luigi said, elbowing the man in the ribs playfully.

"No, I'm sorry, but our mayor is in another estate. She's a busy woman and this is awfully inconvenient of course," the man said. "But you will have her personal assistant at your disposal. Professor Artemis Todd. Truth be told I was actually the mayor's private tutor before I became her right hand man."

 _I clean shit for a living_ , Mario thought glumly. His backstory was nowhere near as interesting and his life had been, at best, average in every way.

"Luigi Saltare," Luigi said, shaking Professor Todd's hand. "Me and my brother Mario here don't exactly have a fancy life like yours but we're born and bred hardworking citizens. Ain't that right brother?"

"Hard-working when we're not chatting with customers," Mario said, but he took the Professor's hand out of courtesy.

"I realize this might sound a bit foolish coming from somebody like me," Professor Todd began. "But don't measure your life in comparison to others. We each have our own journey, and what is important is that we enjoy it for what it is. Call me an old fool if you like, but some of the happiest men I've known come from nothing."

 _And return to it shortly thereafter,_ Mario thought again. He then took a moment to re-calibrate his attitude. He realized that his thoughts had been especially dark since the car ride and he couldn't understand what was happening. He was never exactly cheery, but he had been filled with a strange sense of impending dread since walking into the mansion.

"Thanks, Professor. I'm still just 'getting old' so it's nice to hear some good news for a change," Mario said.

The Professor let out a small laugh before leaving the two to their work. They had been left in the main bathroom on the ground floor of the affected wing. It was a definite "rich guy" bathroom – elegant tilework, a square tub which looked like it could fit about a half dozen people, and even a sparkling white porcelain commode. Yes, even the thing which literally handled shit was beautiful on the outside and there was a wonderful metaphor there which Mario couldn't quite put his finger on.

And of course this was how the bathroom looked when all the surfaces were not covered in a thin layer of sewage and backup. Luigi looked at some blueprints while Mario got to work removing the commode and opening up a hole in the floor to get access to the reservoir beneath.

"Wow, what a terrible system," Luigi commented. "All the pipes are stacked on top of each other with no diverting chambers and the only reservoir is the one down here."

"So if one sink or shitter gets backed up anywhere on this pipeline, the whole system backs up," Mario grunted. He'd seen inefficient layouts like this before designed to save time, space and money rather than make a functional plumbing system. "We're gonna have to clear the whole system and by the looks of it replace the burst pipes on three floors."

"We could install the chambers ourselves, maybe fix this up so it don't happen again," Luigi suggested.

"That's a three day job, and not what we're paid to do. I don't want to spend anymore time here than we have to. It's already gonna take two days just to fix this mess. Can you go tell the Professor what we're dealing with here?" Mario explained.

Luigi nodded. "Usual rate?"

"I'm not gonna price gouge the mayor. Parts and labor, that's it," Mario said.

To be fair, they usually only raised the price if there was a repeat problem customer – or if they were particularly behind on bills - but that tactic had probably resulted in them having less and less clients over the years. Unethical perhaps, but the karmic results made Mario sleep easy. Still his desire to remain as under-the-radar as possible on this one, less for the government aspect and more for the definite mob ties aspect, ruled out this mercenary option.

With Luigi gone, Mario reached instinctively into his pocket but then remembered that nothing was there. Today was going unbelievably poorly for him to need a third hit but he really did. He wanted to escape into that other world for a few hours and maybe the job would be done. He knew from experience that he was able to work on the pipes while his mind took a vacation though he was never really sure how. Perhaps he'd just done it so much that it was second-nature to him now, like breathing.

He looked in the mirror, a fine full-body piece with a mother-of-pearl rim. Here he was, all 5 foot 6 of him. Short, fat, mustachioed and disgustingly sober. He hated himself like this. Shrugging, he decided that it was best to get to work. As he bent over the pipe, reaching into his toolkit with his left hand, he heard a faint whispering coming from within.

He was an experienced plumber, and he'd heard every sound these things made, especially when they were open to the elements. Rattling as a new channel starts flowing, a whining sound of a pipe settling in the colder months, and even a whisper like sound of air pressure flowing out of a pipe when a reservoir is cut off with water, pushing the wind out the opening. These were all normal. But this was not one of those sounds. This whisper was definitely words.

"Mar...hear...elp...pipe..."

Mario had nothing to fall back on at the moment. Something was talking to him through the pipe. He leaned in closer to try and make it out.

"Mario... down... pipe..."

He finally was forced to press his whole ear to the pipe. Only then did it come through with clarity enough to make out a whole sentence.

"Mario... if you can hear me, we're here to help. Just come down the pipe."

Suddenly the door shot open and Mario lifted his head away from the grimy pipe. Unfortunately he hit his head on the still connected bathroom sink above his him and fell down into darkness.


	5. World 2-1: Confusion

**World 2-1: Confusion**

 _9:00 PM_

The night sky shimmered with the gleam of a thousand stars, yet no moon was visible tonight. The soft rocking sensation had jostled Mario awake and before long he determined where he was – onboard a ship heading north towards the Mushroom Kingdom. To his surprise Toad and Luigi were with him.

"Hey, what happened?" Mario asked.

"You had another blackout, Mario. We were worried about you. Toad had to carry you all the way to the ship," Luigi explained.

"Yeah, and you weren't exactly light either!" Toad exclaimed. "But I managed to get us all on!"

Mario leaned against the starboard railing of the craft. The vessel was enough to fit the three of them and maybe two more, plus the captain who was piloting. It was a small white boat powered by steam and chugging along the deep blue waters.

"How soon until we are at the Mushroom Kingdom?" Mario asked, trying to sound all business despite his state.

"We should be there by morning. I suggest you kids get some shut eye," said the captain, an old grizzled looking member of the Toad Clan with a white beard and eyepatch.

"That's probably a good idea. Of course, I've been sleeping for a while now," Mario shrugged.

"Yeah, I think I'll take first shift on the sleeping," Toad announced. "After all, I carried you."

Mario nodded and Toad went below deck to a small room which featured one decent-sized bed and three small bedrolls arranged around it. Mario returned to the railing, trying to fight a sudden bout of seasickness. Luigi patted him on the shoulder.

"Are you feeling alright, Mario?" He asked.

"Just not used to boats," Mario replied. He then remembered their earlier encounter. "Back at the Vanilla Dome... did something happen? I mean before I passed out?"

Luigi shook his head. "You started looking at me all funny like and then you just sort of fell over. It's a good thing Toad had decided on his own to come with us or we would have missed the boat"

This didn't really answer his question, as well as some new ones that had begun popping up around Toad's appearance, but he let the matter drop for now. Just as Mario was about to suggest that maybe sleep wasn't a bad idea there was a loud whirring that echoed overhead. A sound like a rumbling roll of thunder crept up on them, distant at first but growing nearer with each passing moment.

"It's one of Bowser's airships!" The Captain yelled. "Get below deck!"

The order came a bit too late as two massive cannonballs landed just a hair's length off the side of their ship, creating a massive shockwave in the water which began to tip the vessel. Above or below the deck, nothing was going to save them from a direct hit.

"Luigi, we still have some of those Fire Flowers?" Mario asked, reaching out his hand.

"We have one left but we're not going to hit those airships from here," Luigi said.

"We gotta try something!" Mario yelled, snatching the small orange tulip from his brother's hand.

It was another simple magical herb but it proved wonderfully effective. The flower somehow reacted with the body and set a burning flame within them. A few short seconds after consuming one and your insides felt the agony of an inferno, but they could spit fire and even toss fireballs from their hand. Mario had taken this common herb and perfected its use. He took off his ordinary red shirt and put on a special white shirt that was flame retardant and then began to chew on the flower.

No matter how many times he used it he would never get use to that feeling of his inner organs being seared black. But the rage fueled him. He knew the pain would not end for an hour, but he could do a great deal of damage in that hour.

Luigi was right. He couldn't hit the airships hovering way overhead even if he charged his shot. But he had one idea. Another volley of cannonfire but this time the balls met his flame and shattered into pieces, sending small, mostly harmless bits of shrapnel landing around them.

"Let's hope they get bored or run out of ammo, eh?" Mario said, exploding another cannonball with his flame.

The fiery carnage continued. The rage and repressed panic fueling Mario and an silent looming will for destruction emanating from the airship. Just as Mario was starting to falter the airship seemed to give it up as a bad job and turned back towards the north. Luigi and Toad let out a cheer, but Mario remained silent. The hellfire was now little more than a flickering candle and he returned to his breathable read shirt, sitting down and laying his head back against the railing.

"I thought you'd be a little happy, Mario. You just saved us all from that airship," Luigi said.

"That airship flew north," Mario said. "And it was busy down here just to play with us."

The expression of the crew changed as the reality of their situation sunk in.

"Bowser has invaded the Mushroom Kingdom."


	6. World 2-2: Delusion

**World 2-2: Delusion**

 _10:00 PM_

Mario was in his apartment, staring at the same grimy mirror he'd been looking at that morning. He was mid-brush when he suddenly came to and the sudden sensation of mint of and bristle caused him to gag. He spit out the toothpaste and gargled some sink water. It took him a minute to register that this meant that the water main had in fact been fixed and that it was obviously much later in the day. He looked to the clock in his bedroom to find that it was 10:04 PM.

 _How the hell did I get home? What have I been doing all day? I didn't even have any..._

He reached into his pockets to confirm his thought process, only to find himself already in his boxers and t-shirt. He rushed over to the chair where he'd haphazardly tossed his overalls and found nothing in his pockets there either. Where the hell were his mushrooms?

This had been the widest gap in his consciousness he'd ever experienced. Seven hours. The worst batch should only have affected him for about three, and he didn't have any in him at the time to boot. Something else was going on. He began to consider going to the hospital, but for what? He felt fine now, was he supposed to tell the doctor that he'd taken some shrooms earlier in the day and now he was falling asleep and losing track of time?

Well, he wasn't exactly falling asleep. He'd been in the middle of brushing his teeth. Clearly he was doing something on auto-pilot. Though Mario supposed it didn't matter anyway. His insurance was crap, he'd never even get into a decent doctor without being on death's door. He had to try and recover some of the lost time and so he did the only thing he could. He called Luigi.

"Hey bro," Luigi said cheerily, but with a hint of grogginess as he answered the phone. "A bit late to be calling, eh? What's up?"

Mario stumbled over his words for a moment. How the hell was he supposed to ask the question? Luigi was already wary of him from this morning. Then again, maybe he could turn that to his advantage.

"Luigi, I'm sorry to be bugging you, but in case you haven't noticed I ain't been feeling so good today and... uh," Mario rubbed the back of his neck as he just decided to come right out and ask it. "How did the job go? I kind of forgot what happened."

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line and Mario's aging heart skipped a few beats.

"I'm gonna schedule a doctor for you, okay bro? I got my own health plan that ain't your crappy one and we're gonna check you out," Luigi said.

"I'm fine, I'm just tired and sick and my mind is all fuzzy," Mario tried to explain.

"Mario," Luigi said sternly. "You know I'm your brother, I love ya and I won't judge you or nothing but I gotta ask. Are you taking something? You know maybe to like... help with the stress?"

The truth cut deep and Mario barked. "Are you calling me a junkie?"

"I'm just asking why you suddenly can't remember half of the day today without my help," Luigi replied. "If you're not on something then your brain is in real bad shape."

"Maybe I should take a personal day instead of getting poked at by some guy in a white coat," Mario retorted. "Or can I? I mean we sure didn't get the big job done."

"Mario," Luigi sighed. "We lost the client. The water main got fixed shortly after we arrived and when that professor guy came in to check on our progress he found you passed out on the floor. He was real nice about it but I'm sure nobody else woulda been."

Mario felt an odd combination of disappointment and relief. One the one hand, that was a shitload of money he was losing out on. On the other, he hated the job in the first place. Regardless, Luigi was right. That was a big thing to forget and he wasn't on anything.

"You know, maybe you better get me in with that doctor," Mario said.

Luigi let out a noticeable sigh on the line. "Finally, you're talking some sense. I'll pick you up first thing in the morning and we'll get you looked at, okay bro?"

"Okay," Mario said. He decided he'd better just end the conversation and deal with the rest of whatever lay ahead of him in the morning. "Good night, Luigi."

"Night, Mario," Luigi said with a hint of dejection.

Mario lay down on his bed and resolved to try and get a sound night's sleep. He almost made it to dreamland without incident. In the last few moments of his consciousness, where his mind was in the twilight haze between awake and asleep, he saw something on his nightstand that hadn't been there a moment ago. The same petals, the odd the shape, the heat that seemed to emanate from its very presence.

"Fire... flower?" Mario said to himself in a stupor. He tried to reach out and touch it, but sleep overtook him first.


	7. World 2-3: Evasion

**World 2-3: Evasion**

 _6:00 AM_

Mario woke to the sound of rushing water. At first he stupidly thought he was back on that raft, crashing through the ocean. But that had just been a dream of his... or perhaps a delusion. He slowly rose out of his bed, every inch of his body creaking and groaning like stiff old wooden boards. He realized within a few moments of exhausted stupor that the sound of water was coming from his shower.

"Hey Mario, that you?" Came Luigi's voice from his bathroom. "I got the shower all ready for you. Hurry up and get ready so we can get you in. I got an appointment for you at eight."

This was unusually bossy for Luigi. He almost forgotten he'd given Luigi a spare key out of courtesy. Then again, he supposed Luigi was doing him a favor. Grumbling slightly less than he was usually inclined to he made his way to the shower, grabbing the nearest clothes he had to clean and putting them on the bathroom sink.

The shower water was refreshing, but it caused him to sober up from the brief relaxed state of half-sleep. A plethora of worries came back to him as the hot water cascaded over him: Where were his shrooms? What was going to happen with that last job? Why did he keep blacking out? Nagging concerns to which the answers did not seem closer continued to bombard him until he stepped out of the shower and dried himself off, at which point the sleepiness returned, having only been kept briefly at bay by the warm water.

"I told Daisy not to take any calls today. She got a paid day off so she's happy about it," Luigi said.

"You say that like we were expecting a busy day," Mario grunted, pulling on his boots.

"Yeah well either way taking care of you is priority one," Luigi said. "By the way, we need to swing by the office on the way to the doctor's real quick. We need to get your insurance info. I know you always leave it in your office."

Mario nodded. "Yeah, I can't wait to find out exactly how broke I am."

Though this course did give him an opportunity to try and recover what he'd lost. Assuming it was in fact still there. The drive over felt like an eternity. Even though he was constantly dozing off, the back and forth shifting made it actually seem longer than it really was. When they finally arrived, however, Mario was wide awake, and leapt out of Luigi's car with the grace of a much younger man.

He unlocked the front door and they both went inside. Mario knew what he had to do first – his freshly sober mind having the benefit of relatively clear thinking.

"Hey, I need to use the bathroom real quick. Gimme a second," Mario said.

Luigi nodded and just sat down at Daisy's desk, playing with the bomb-shaped desk toy she had. Mario closed the door behind him and turned on the fan to try and mask the sound of him tearing the place apart. He checked the sink, underneath it, in the toilet bowl, in the tank, behind the small radiator in the corner. Nothing. The mushrooms were not here.

Mario flushed the toilet for effect, washed his hands for real to remove the dirt from the places he'd checked and then exited out into the main area. Luigi was tossing the toy into the air and catching it.

"Man, you must have had something nasty for dinner," Luigi smirked. "Grab your stuff so we can get moving, bro."

Mario entered the tiny office and shut the door behind him. There was nothing to block the sound of his shuffling, but he was supposed to be looking for insurance papers anyway. He found them almost immediately because they were always near the top of his desk. But he made a show of searching anyways. In the drawers – nothing. In the pile on his desk – nothing. And nothing on the floor either.

 _They can't have just magically disappeared,_ Mario thought, cursing internally as he felt the rising swell of a panic attack. Maybe they were just gone. Maybe Daisy found them, used herself and just took them for herself. All he had to worry about now was getting new ones. He could cut himself an advance on his salary. But with what money? They were on the edge of bankruptcy as it was. And he'd lost a huge paycheck.

That memory infuriated him even more. The one time in ages he'd actually been sober on the job and that was when he fucked everything up. He let out a small sigh and realized for the first time that he might be in over his head. He might actually need some help, beyond just the doctor looking at his brain. Maybe he had a problem. Maybe he could get better.

He opened the door to his office and slunk out holding the insurance papers. He was prepared to tell Luigi the truth.

"Look, bro, I gotta-"

He stopped when he saw the small baggie in Luigi's hands. There was a look of disappointment mixed with the tiniest hint of superiority – the kind his parents used to give him and Luigi all the time whenever they caught the brothers in a lie.

"So, Mario. Were you looking for these?"


	8. World 2-4: Invasion

**World 2-4: Invasion**

Mario awoke to the sound of cannonfire. Yet another leg of his journey missed and yet another morning of absolute chaos and disorientation. He appeared to be in an inn of sorts, and had just enough time to admire the rustic cabin feel of the interior before the opposite wall caved in under the weight of a massive cannonball nearly as big as Mario himself. The shot came through the wall at a downward angle and plunged down into the floor just before his bed, sailing down two floors before colliding with the earth in a furious quake.

"Luigi! Toad!" Mario shouted. But there was no possible way they could hear him over the din, even if they were right next to him.

With no other choice, Mario decided he would have to leap right into battle and find his comrades later. He leapt out of the recently acquired park view and landed in the grass two stories below. He tried to take in his surroundings but nothing seemed familiar. A plaza of some kind, with what used to be a fountain but now looked like a flooded modern art display. A circle of buildings all in various phases of unexpected demolition. He looked to the heavens and saw something that was familiar: Bowser's airship fleet. In the middle distance between sky and horizon was the highest parapets of the nearby castle.

He was already in the Mushroom Kingdom? How? How did he get here? Where were his friends?

A large black-tipped hammer landed mere inches from his feet, and he turned to see one of Bowser's soldiers taking aim at him. The menace took the appearance of an ordinary shelled Koopa, the turtle-tribe under Bowser's command, but something was unique about him. He wore a bright green battle helmet and carried a bandolier lined with handheld warhammers. As he unsheathed a second Mario could tell two things: The hammers were incredibly heavy, and this creature was able to lob them as easy as tossing an apple.

The hammer-wielding fiend threw the hammer in a wide arc, aiming right for Mario's head. Mario was able to dodge it but just as he did so a second came hurtling his way. Another quick dive and Mario was three for three, but he did not like the quick-handedness of his opponent and eventually he would get unlucky. He reached for his satchel but found nothing to aid him. If he had a Fire Flower, this could be over in moments. He had to think fast.

A fourth hammer came flying his way, then a fifth. Mario was being slowly backed into a corner against the ruined inn. He would have nowhere to run. The sixth struck the cobblestone wall behind him with a sickening CRACK! As it fell it took away large chunks of the stone wall with it.

"Why don't you just leave me alone!" Mario shouted at the green menace. He picked up a chunk of the rock and hurled it at the fiend. It connected, knocking the wind out of his opponent. He slid down the wall looking for anything else he could use as a weapon and he found it – a strange black sphere, with little wind-up feet and white lines for "eyes" that almost appeared sentient.

"A Bob-omb," Mario thought. He'd heard about these kamikaze weapons that Bowser manufactured. What one was doing here just lying on the ground was a mystery. Perhaps it had been dropped by another soldier, but whatever the reason for its presence it was welcome.

Mario lifted the the Bob-omb, gave it a quick wind up and then threw it. Again it connected, but this time it exploded with a titanic shockwave that sent Mario hurtling back through the plaza and sent the trooper's face hurtling back through its skull. Mario didn't bother checking to confirm the obvious. The trooper was dead and Mario had a chance to get the hell out of here while the getting was good. He noticed a rush of people all heading towards the castle for safety and this seemed the most logical decision.

He grabbed the bandolier of hammers from the creature's body and started to run. Only four hammers remained but the weight was still almost unbearable. Mario was able to sprint, but it was not easy. The sea of fleeing mushroom citizens was primarily composed of what felt like every member of the Toad tribe. Finding _his_ Toad would not be easy. A green-garbed human should stand out quite decidedly in the white tide, but there was nothing.

He was so busy looking around he didn't notice when the crowd stopped moving abruptly and slammed into the back of one of the citizens, knocking him over onto the ground. He would ordinarily have helped the man up but in the split second it took him to realize their forward momentum had ceased he also discovered why.

The largest airship in the fleet had sailed low next to the castle. The hovering galleon was a marvel of technology – a polished harmony of wood and steel, magic and metal, gangplanks and gears. The castle was still technically larger than the ship, but only just slightly. Either way, the airship was now the most commanding sight on the horizon. An enormous boarding plank crashed down onto the main audience balcony of the castle, but the view of what exactly happened herein was obscured by the rest of the enormous vessel.

The crowd stood glued in spot from fright. Mario didn't know what to do. What could he do? He'd barely been able to go toe-to-toe with _one_ of Bowser's minions. The theoretical opportunity for a counterattack was flushed away as the enormous Koopa himself stood at the stern of the ship and addressed the crowd below.

He was more dragon than turtle, a shock of fiery red hair flowing down the back of his neck like a lion's mane. His fanged teeth visible every moment his mouth was slightly open. His shell was a dazzling natural gradient of green and black, and adorned with spikes. As if all that weren't enough, he stood at least five-fold Mario's height and ten times as wide.

"Miserable citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. Your princess has offered her full and unconditional surrender in exchange for me sparing your worthless lives!" Bowser boomed, his voice commanding the heavens themselves.

The Princess was carried up to the edge of the craft as well. This was Mario's first time seeing her as well. She had long blonde hair that cascaded down her back, and wore a stately and modest pink dress. White gloves covered her hands and arms. This lovely attire was marred somewhat by the thick hempen rope that bound her arms to her waist and the white rag that covered her mouth.

"I am a creature of my word. I swore to the Princess that I would not kill you all and I won't kill you. In fact, I will bestow an amazing gift upon you," Bowser said, his eyes flickering with malevolence. "I will make you all as mighty as stones, and as unyielding as your castle's walls."

Peach began to struggle against her bonds. Clearly the creature's words were plain to her even though the citizens could barely process the sight of this foul being.

"The princess has said that you... _lovely_ people are the 'cornerstone' of her kingdom. Well. Let's see if we can't give life to that admirable metaphor."

Bowser began to raise his hand and a massive sphere of blue light began to form within it. This was the catalyst needed to begin the crowd's retreat in the opposite direction. It was Mario's turn to be knocked down by the fleeing crowd. There were screams, a blinding flash of azure light, and then there were none.

Mario thought for a moment he might be dead, until he heard the sound of the airship's engine churning into gear as it rose up high into the sky above. Mario tried to get a glimpse at where the fleet was heading but the closest he could tell was a roughly westerly direction. The fleet sailed out of range and before long the princess and the beast were long out of sight.

Mario turned back to the crowd of fleeing people, but there were no more signs of anybody. There were, in their place, several cubic blocks scattered around haphazardly. Some were on the ground, others strangely hovered in mid-air, and still more seemed as though they were locked in a random point in space. It only took him a few seconds to piece together what had happened to the people. These _were_ the citizens. Bowser had turned them all into these blocks.

Before Mario had even had a chance to resist him, Bowser had already won.


	9. World 3-1: Depression

**World 3-1: Depression**

Mario felt the sting of the cold rain flooding his face, the backwash from an old storm drain waterboarding him in muck. He coughed, nearly inhaled a mouthful of water and just as he was reflecting how terrible a way to die this would be, he caught his breath and puked up the remaining contents of his stomach along with the foreign liquid.

His clothes were sticking to his skin, completely drenched. A nasty cold was basically a given at this point, but at the same time Mario could barely tell where he was. Wherever it was it was wet, dark and miserable.

His eyes began to adjust to the darkness, aided by the moonlight. No. It wasn't the moon. It was a massive white neon facsimile of the moon. Well, wherever he was, he was downtown. He looked around him for some clue of what had happened. On the ground, completely soaked but visible nonetheless, was a familiar little baggie. And as luck would have it there was one mushroom chunk left, albeit flooded. Mario dried out the baggie as best as he could and put it in his pocket. You never know.

The next thing he saw was the mallet. It was his mallet – a good rubber hunk at the end of a wooden handle, great for evenly distributing weight of a blow when, say, knocking a stubborn pipe into place. The dried blood, barely preserved for having been under an awning where it lay, indicated that its most recent use had been decidedly more nefarious.

He checked his pockets for his phone: Nothing. He checked for his wallet: Nothing.

He was empty-handed – save for what was at best a weapon used in a recent assault and illegal hallucinogens – in the bad part of a bad city, in the middle of rainy night, and with no recollection of the last twelve hours, at least. Mario's stomach churned and he felt about ready to vomit again. He had a pretty good idea of what had happened.

He'd gone to that place again, and every time he came back things kept getting worse. The green-clad monster. The bomb. The hammers. And he somehow had his baggie back. He had done something horrible to Luigi. Something absolutely horrible.

He laid back down in the wet streets and began to openly weep. He didn't know where he was. His brother might be dead. And even if by some miracle he wasn't, he had been attacked by Mario. He knew about Mario's problem. He'd waited to reveal that he knew because he wanted to... what? Rub Mario's nose in it? Why hold on to that? He didn't know what to do. He didn't know when he would lose his mind next and do something terrible to somebody who cared about him. It was a cycle. His whole life was one miserable cycle and things weren't getting any better.

He saw the fire escape. It was hopeful. He started to climb. His fingers barely worked from the cold, but he was able to somehow get up the first rusty ladder up to the base landing. From there it was just a sad walk up some stairs. The creaking and ruined stairwell that was ironically designed to save lives.

After what felt like an hour he'd reached to top of the five story building. Yeah... this was tall enough. Could be taller, but it would do in a pinch. He looked over the edge to the streets below. Not even a car driving by at this time of night. He considered his options while he reflect on how much he hated heights. The dizzying prospects of what he was considering was quite enough without actually wanting to dwell on the mechanics of it.

"What are you doing up here?" Came a familiar voice.

Mario looked over to the roof hatch. It was Toad. The old bartender looked quite different in jeans and a t-shirt, holding a cigar in one hand and the door handle in the other. The rotund man took a closer look and finally recognized his old friend.

"Mario? Jeez what the heck happened to you?" Toad asked, rushing over to him.

He bent down beside Mario and did his best to discern his state in the downpour. Mario wondered if pitching himself over the edge now would be too cruel, or a sort of kindness.

"I... I did something bad, Toad," Mario said.

"What are you talking about buddy? I'm sure it ain't so bad," Toad said reassuringly.

He chanced at reaching out to Mario and slowly lifted him to his feet. They were both drenched now. Mario felt Toad's warm hands, the first human contact he'd felt in almost a day. The first sign that somebody out there cared about him.

"I did something really, really bad," Mario repeated.

"Look, don't worry about it okay. Let's get you inside and dried off and then you can tell me all about it," Toad offered.

"I don't want to hurt anybody," Mario whimpered.

"I know, it's okay. It's okay," Toad said.

Toad slowly guided Mario to the door. Every step up to roof hatch Mario considered turning, but Toad's steady hands guided him safely away. When the roof hatch shut behind them, Mario's head began to clear a bit. That option was out of the way – for now.

"You saved my life," Mario blurted out.

"I'm sure I didn't," Toad said, ever humble. "Hell you saved a bit of mine. One of these things takes off like four hours or so, right?"

Mario let out a polite chuckle, although there wasn't a trace of humor in it. They walked down the hallway to Toad's apartment. It was a small place, but surprisingly neat, save a little bit of the "lived in" mess you would expect of a bachelor. There were some dishes in the sink, but the shelves were sparkling.

"You just chill right here on the doormat," Toad said. "I'll go grab you some towels and a pair of shorts to borrow. Don't worry I haven't worn them in like weeks."

Toad let out another laugh, but Mario didn't respond this time. He just graciously took the towels when offered and stripped off his wet clothes, tossing them into a plastic bag kindly offered by Toad. He sat on Toad's couch, wearing only a borrowed pair of shorts which kept sliding down and a towel around his shoulders.

"Now I'll put these clothes in the washer and make us some grub. You like grilled cheese?" He asked.

"I don't want to keep you up," Mario said politely.

"I'm taking the day off tomorrow anyways, don't worry about it. I know you'd do the same for me. Get some food in you, and let me get you a beer," Toad said.

"I don't think I should drink... anymore," Mario added this last word to try and offer his friend a reasonable, if untrue, explanation for his current state.

"Fair enough," Toad nodded. "Just the sandwich then."

"Hey Toad," Mario interjected, turning around in the couch to face his friend. "Could you... call Luigi for me?"

He had to know.

"It's a little late pal. Are you sure?" Toad asked.

"Just... we got into a fight and... I don't know what happened," Mario said.

Toad nodded solemnly. He grabbed the phone from off his kitchen counter and handed it to Mario after dialing the number for him. Mario listened in vain for a few minutes before getting the canned voicemail greeting. He dialed it a second time with no answer. And a third. Mario finally hung up, and the desire to leap off the edge returned to him in full force.

Toad took the phone back and set it where it belonged. "Hey now, relax Mario. Eat. Sleep. And in the morning we'll go find Luigi, okay?"

"Right. Sleep is a good idea," Mario said. And he secretly hoped he wouldn't wake up.


	10. World 3-2: Regression

**World 3-2: Regression**

Mario woke up surrounded by darkness. His body ached from the miles he'd run during the day, and he only had the vaguest recollection of stopping by this house in the middle of the wilds to recover his energy. A chilly mist seemed to envelope the abode, drowning Mario's courage. He was unsure he'd be able to get more sleep, partly from the cold air and partly from the strange sounds he heard echoing back at him from the darkness.

 _I'm not alone,_ Mario thought.

His pilfered hammer was gone. It was just him and his nerves, and they were failing fast. He decided to just leave, but as he turned back towards the entranceway, he was met with nothing but a brick wall. There was a shrill chittering sound somewhere between a cackle and a giggle that came from directly behind him.

Mario turned quickly and saw a pale white sphere mere feet from him, suspended in the air. It stood out from the fog for being ever slightly more opaque, but in that sphere Mario felt a sinister intent. In fact he was certain that noise had come from the thing.

Mario leaned back against the wall. He waited for it to do something, but it merely floated there, as if frozen in place. Was it waiting for Mario to do something? A crazy thought entered Mario's mind as the minutes rolled on. Maybe, just maybe, it _couldn't_ move while he was looking at it.

He turned away for just a moment, less than a blink's time and turned back. The sphere was right in front of him now. Mario fell back on the ground in a panic, but he dare not turn to run. He'd been in battles before, but this was unlike anything he'd ever faced. He couldn't defeat this thing. He had no weapons, nothing on him was of any use. And whenever he turned away this... thing... would be on top of him in seconds.

He had to find an exit. He had to find a way out. And he had to make sure this thing didn't get him while his back was turned.

He began to move back carefully along the walls, hands sliding along the brick, as he slowly guided himself back. He was now on the opposite side of the room from the ghost and his hand touched something that felt like a door. He glanced back to confirm the path was clear and quickly returned to the sphere. It had covered half the distance in that time.

With the door open, Mario had caught sight of a long, dark hallway, that clearly had no exit in immediate sight. Going deeper into the house seemed like a bad idea. But he couldn't very well stay in the room with this thing forever. He leaped through the door and slammed it shut. He then quickly ran down the hallway. There was a way out and he was going to find it. The chittering sound returned and Mario looked over his shoulder.

 _It's coming through the wall._

Reckless abandon overtook Mario and he began to run, crashing through each door in between him and whatever dead end lay in wait. The creature was right on his tail the entire time. He stopped to face it every few seconds to make sure it wasn't getting too close, but he was never able to buy himself any true breathing room.

The walls seemed to close in on him as he ran, passing door after door after door. This made no sense. The house had seemed like a simple two story manor when he'd stopped by last night, but this one hall seemed to be stretching out for miles.

He hurled himself through a door at the end of a particularly long corridor only to pitch forward into nothingness and land several feet below... in room he started in. He'd gone in a circle. Somehow he'd gone in a circle. That was the only explanation.

 _But that's just impossible!_

He'd been going straight – he was certain. He never so much as entered a side room, let alone make any series of turns that could have brought him back here. The ghostly figure, the nonsensical layout. Something was terribly wrong with this house.

He ran back to the door and started over again, this time making sure that he didn't go through anything other than the doors at the end of each corridor and constantly checking briefly to make sure his ghostly stalker was safely behind him. After a few more minutes, though noticeably less than his first journey, he wound up back in the same room. And a third time. And a fourth. He was getting nowhere, and his desperation and fear mounting every moment.

On his fifth recursion he stopped and simply collapsed into a heap against the far wall. He looked up at the sphere and once again it stopped moving at his gaze. He lost himself in tears of panic. There was nothing he could do now.

"What's the matter, Mario?" Came a voice from the sphere.

Before his eyes it began to melt, is glowing ivory plasma remolding itself like clay into the figure of... his brother.

"Luigi?" Mario asked, wiping his eyes and slowly daring to approach ever so slightly closer.

"What's the matter, Mario?" the figure asked.

"Luigi... but how? How are you here?" Mario asked.

"Everybody you let die is here, Mario," said the spectral Luigi. "All the people you could have saved."

A shrill chorus rose up through the house and suddenly the room was alive, the walls pouring with thousands of the things. Spheres of white all looming around like billowy clouds of poisonous fog.

"But I'm special," said Luigi. "You didn't just let me die, like you did all the others. No, no."

Luigi removed his hat, revealing a massive gaping wound in his forehead, still trickling blood down the side of his cheek.

"You killed me, Mario," Luigi said.

"No!" Mario shrieked. "I didn't do it! I didn't do it!"

"You killed me!" Luigi growled once more, and in the scant moments where Mario could bear to look into Luigi's eyes they glowed an eerily familiar red. He'd seen those eyes before.

"I didn't kill you, Luigi. This isn't real! This is all just a nightmare! I'm not here!" Mario was babbling now as memories of parallel existences collided within his mind.

He'd reached the absolute breaking point of his psyche, the world's which he'd been trying to keep separate – willingly or not – were now rending his consciousness asunder. Flashes of reality kept Mario thunderstruck as he looked into those deep red eyes with renewed terror. He couldn't look away. This wasn't real and yet it was. The black threshold between life and death spread so thin that it shattered and all points of purposeful thought and unbidden nightmares flowed through his strangled mind.

"You left us all to die!" The chorus of wailing ghosts cried out. "You could have saved us!"

"You killed me!" Luigi screamed.

"This isn't real!" Mario pleaded for the cosmos to make his wish the new string of reality. But the world would not be reforged for his desires, and the truth of what happened buried his last hope of sanity.

And then, in an instant, Mario was back in Toad's apartment, laying on the couch. Chunks of his own hair lay on the ground beside him. Toad was standing in the corner of the room, watching him with his own look of panic - something he'd never seen before in this man.

But the most commanding presence in the room was that of two uniformed police officers who were standing right in front of him, one holding out a pair of handcuffs and the other with his weapon un-holstered.

Somewhere, a voice in the back of Mario's mind wanted to ask what was going on. But he knew what he'd done. He knew why they were here. And he didn't have the energy anymore to fight his fate. The officer spoke in a firm voice as he slipped the cuffs around Mario's wrists.

"Mario Saltare, you're under arrest for the murder of Luigi Saltare."


	11. World 3-3: Degradation

**World 3-3: Degradation**

Mario could barely process what was happening to him as he walked down the hallway in cuffs, the police guiding him to whatever fate lied in store for him. Toad followed them as far as he could, which was only to the apartment elevator. Before the doors shut, Mario caught a glimpse of Toad's expression, a strange mix of betrayal, confusion, pain and sadness. It was as though he wanted to tell Mario everything was going to be okay, but unsure how to do so without potentially smearing the memory of Luigi. There was a distance now between the two that took the span of their entire friendship and compressed it into a single idea – a barrier that could not be penetrated by either of them. The small gap for the doors in the elevator may as well have been a chasm.

A look was all they could share. They didn't have words anymore.

The elevator descended slowly as the beat cops tried to remain serious and stoic, but there was something very off about the whole thing. Mario wasn't sure what it was, and being half asleep and awoken from the worst night of his life didn't help. He looked in the mirror in the corner of the elevator. Standing behind him, each one holding one of his arms, stood the two officers wearing their bright blue uniforms and badges.

He'd seen these men before. But where?

The elevator continued to descend. God how deep was this thing going? Sweat began to flow freely as Mario suddenly felt the whole situation crashing down upon him. Now that Toad was away and the judging stare of his friend no longer pierced his heart his brain was free to act. There was something very, very wrong here.

 _Think, god damn it, think. What's wrong with this?_ Mario thought to himself as the number 7 flashed on the floor monitor. They were almost at the ground floor. Mario touched his thumb to the handcuffs. They were real alright, not the cheap storebought kind for kids playing cop or adults living out lurid BDSM fantasies.

 _Floor 6_.

The doors opened up briefly and an elderly man was about to get on when he was startled by the sight before him.

"Sorry old man," said the cop on Mario's left. "You'll have to take the next one. Police business."

"Oh, sorry officers!" The old man stammered out as he backed away.

Mario consulted the mirror again. Badges, blue uniforms, guns, tazers. The whole getup was very convincing. No detail left unaccounted for. These were real cops. But why did they look so familiar? What was happening here?

 _Floor 5._

Mario racked his brain trying to figure out the missing detail but distractions came at the worst possible time. Did he really kill Luigi? What if there was nothing? What if this was his sick mind trying to find an out – an escape? To deny his responsibility and to protect himself, would his mind fabricate something like this?

"What time is it, officer?" Mario asked.

The cop on his right checked his watch briefly. It was a bright red digital display but in the mirror Mario couldn't make out the digits.

"About 3 AM," the officer said. "You'll have to wait until morning to call a lawyer."

 _Floor 4._

Somehow the entire span of that conversation had lasted only a single floor. How slow was this elevator going? Why?

Mario looked down to the ground and saw his own mud-caked boots and pants. The officers clothes were... dry. It was pouring down rain outside. They weren't wearing raincoats. How could that be? There was no indoor parking here. Why were the clothes dry?

 _Floor 3._

There was something wrong with the shoes too. Those weren't the neat patent leather dress shoes of the polished local police. They were work boots. Jet black to be sure and they wouldn't look out of place to the casual observer, but Mario had enough run-ins with police to recognize the shine of that absurd and impractical status symbol.

It suddenly hit Mario that there was one place where you could go from the outside to the inside of this building without stepping out in the rain. The alley out back. Was their car parked out there? Was this a mob car? Were these guys going to whack him as soon as he went out back with them.

 _Calm down Mario, don't be stupid. They probably pulled up to the curb and got in the door before the rain got to them_ , Mario's logical side tried to talk him out of this self-destructive mode of thought. But he wasn't sure if he could reach himself.

He was already on a dive off the top of this building and into the depths of true insanity. Why should this elevator ride be anything else but an extension of that? Why couldn't he just make whatever reality he wanted? If these men weren't out to get him in some way then they were still cops who wanted to put him away for a long time because he might have killed his brother?

 _Floor 2._

Who the hell cares about his brother? Why did he ever worry about Luigi in the first place? If Luigi hadn't been fucking with him he'd never wind up in this situation? In fact... Mario thought for a moment that maybe, just maybe, he was even kind of... _glad_ that Luigi was dead.

The kid had been holding him back. He'd shoved his fancy life in his face. He'd flaunted Daisy in front of him while Mario struggled for everything he ever got. The best night of lovemaking Mario had ever seen was a one night stand with a woman who was almost certainly a hooker. He was too drunk to remember but he woke up $500 poorer and alone.

Story of his life. Always taking the fall. He wasn't going down like this. Not again. There was nothing wrong with any of this. This was the way things were supposed to be. Mario knew that now. This was just the way life was.

And he wasn't going to stand for it anymore.

 _Floor 1._

The elevator doors opened and standing before him was a small group of people coming off work from their closing shifts. Mario took his chance, he pushed back against the wall, smashing both of the cops' arms against the safety railing. He was even able to grab hold of the right cop's tazer. He didn't fire yet though. First he made a mad dash forward, with the crowd quickly dispersing to get out of the way of the madman.

Of course the cops followed quickly after. Mario took just a few second outside the building to slip his hands under his legs and point the tazer. The first cop out the door was hit and hit hard, the shock from the tazer knocking him flat on his ass. The second cop was having none of this and drew his gun and started taking shots, two bullets whirring past Mario's body, the third clipping him on his shoulder. Mario decided not to take his chances and ran towards the alley. Somehow he was right – the cop car was waiting here instead of the front door.

And the keys were still in it.

This was a sign for sure. Mario opened the door and slid behind the wheel. He popped the car into reverse and smashed the pedal to the ground. The car rocketed back and in a heartbeat he heard the sound of the other cop hitting the back bumper. A quick glance in his rearview saw the cop roll off the right side of the vehicle. When Mario was back on the main street he threw the car into drive and peeled out. He had no idea where to go at this point. All he knew was he was not going to jail. He was not going back home. He couldn't go to his work. The only place left for him was anywhere and nowhere.

And that's when he crashed.


	12. World 3-4: Aberration

**World 3-4: Aberration**

"He's coming through. Mario!"

The old voice was familiar to Mario, but the voice did not belong here. It was not meant to be anywhere yet, but here it was - an aged Toad standing over him. Mario tried to process the system shock of his friend somehow having aged thirty years in a day. The mushroom capped gentleman sported a fine mustache and a monocle, but there was something else a little bit off about him. He was dressed much nicer than the Toad he knew would ever bother with.

And just as that mystery was warming up, it was resolved. The genuine Toad himself appeared beside him, and pulled Mario into a big hug.

"Mario, you're back!" He cried.

"Back? Back from where?" Mario asked, as he slowly sat up.

The room around him could barely be called a room. It was a small chamber of a sewer system. He'd been laying on a cot, and two others were arranged in a line against a grimy wall. There was a strategic arranging of makeshift dressers and desks to create a sort of partition but it offered very little in the way of privacy.

"And where are we now?" Mario groaned.

"He's not all the way back yet," said the old Toad. "The illusion still lingers. His mind isn't free yet."

"You mean he might go back, Professor?" Toad asked.

"It's all but certain that he will."

"Go back where?" Mario asked again. "Please there is so much I don't understand."

"I can't explain everything now. Your ignorance of the truth has kept you safe," Professor Toad explained.

"Safe? I don't even know what's real anymore but at no point have I been safe," Mario said.

"You've faced the dangers that you would have been expected to face but your life was never in danger. In fact I'd wager the only time it was," Professor Toad stroked his chin for a moment as he tried to find the proper way to express this idea. "Was when you deviated from the plan Bowser had set for you."

"Bowser?" Mario's head began to ring with pain and suddenly he felt the world beginning to slip away. He couldn't go now. He had to stay awake.

"This all comes down to Bowser, my boy," Professor Toad explained. "He's got Peach and Luigi. You have to find Daisy and make sure she is okay. Whatever you did to break the mold last time that made you wind up here, just remember it and it should bring you back. Do you understand me? You can affect change in that world."

"What is going on? Why is this happening?" Mario asked, consciousness ebbing away now as he clung to this strange realm.

"I can't tell you all that yet. It would be too risky. Please promise me this – find Daisy. Bring her back here," Professor Toad said.

 _Beeping?_

There was a strange static crackling as the sound of a heart monitor chimed in Mario's ears. He could feel the bedsheets, sterile and just soft enough to be beneficial to the recovery process, without being luxurious. He could smell the undefinable "doctor's office" smell, a mix of a myriad scented concoctions designed to treat, sterilize and kick out the door. He couldn't see anything yet though, but he could swear his eyes were open.

"Mario."

This voice was weak, but painfully familiar. A knife carving the fat of his heart away as an invisible claw pulled at every ventricle.

"... Luigi?"

"Yeah, I'm here bro," Luigi said, putting his hand on Mario's.

"Luigi? I thought..."

"It was all a bad dream, Mario. You're here now," Luigi patted his chest.

It wasn't a dream. Maybe this was the dream. Or maybe this was another reality altogether. But what had happened was evident. He had killed Luigi. Who was this man?

"Look you, uh, you took what I said a little hard, uh," Luigi seemed to be rubbing his neck in guilt. A decent bit of play-acting.

"What are you talking about?" Mario asked.

"I shouldn't have confronted you like that. I should have known you needed help. You just went nuts when it all came out. Grabbed the last shroom, down it in front of me and... well things went bad from there. You threw Daisy's desk toy at me and when that didn't work-"

"The hammer," Mario said.

Luigi let out a small pained groan, as if remembering the impact.

"Yeah. Anyway, from there you apparently ran all over town causing a mess. You went back to the Mayoral Estate and started making a scene and then you went to Toad's apartment of all things. He says you were looking ready to off yourself," Luigi said.

This fit. It made sense in both of his realities. The actions in one explained the other. It was too perfect.

"What about the cops?" Mario asked. "I was running away from them... then I got in a car crash."

Luigi shook his head. "You must have been hallucinating still. Those weren't cops. They were people from the hospital. We were trying to bring you in, but you panicked and ran out the door. Ended up stealing the doctor's car. You did get in a car crash though."

"Is that why I can't see?" Mario asked.

"Your vision should be okay, but you got a really banged up head. We're just going to fix you up and then we'll get you into a rehab program," Luigi said.

This was moving too fast. Luigi was trying to convince him that it was all a dream. But what was that last vision he'd had. It felt more real than all the others, but only slightly.

"Hey, Luigi," Mario said.

"Yeah, bro?" Luigi asked cautiously.

"Can I speak to Daisy?"

There was silence for a few minutes, and Mario could swear he heard a guttoral growl that did not belong to his brother.

"You need to get some rest now, bro," Luigi insisted.

And with that, Not-Luigi left.


	13. World 4-1: Isolation

**World 4-1: Isolation**

The next several weeks of Mario's life were hell in a blur. The bandages were removed from his face after the first week, but he was still mostly blind. He could see light, shapes, a blurry figure that might have been doctors. Luigi came by once in a while, but even these visits had seemed to be formality, a certain stiffness in his tone and an absolute refusal to talk about anything of relevance. Mario had two theories – this was not Luigi, or it was and Mario's recent actions had torn a hole in their relationship that may never be mended. Either idea terrified him.

Mostly, he was alone these days. The only company was the beeping and clicking of medical apparatuses designed to keep him alive. He wasn't sure he wanted to be alive anymore. Everything had suddenly become so... complicated. It wasn't just that his life was difficult, he felt as though all the meaning in it had suddenly been sucked out with a vacuum. He felt displaced, permanently disoriented. His structure was gone and with it a facsimile of the world had fallen into place, devoid of color or connection. It was as if everything had suddenly become two dimensional, and Mario was the only real thing in this paper mache world.

Ending his own life seemed to make sense before, and now it was almost a logical choice. There was no more reason for him to be alive. But something compelled him to stay here, despite all the world seeming to turn against him. Perhaps it was the mystery. Nothing was as it should be, and maybe it wasn't just Mario's depression. Maybe the world was a mockery, and something was keeping him here, like a cage made out of cardboard.

Unfortunately the pain was real enough, and the effect of drugs certainly had not diminished. His immobility prevented him from exploring his options other than in his own mind; but he did so – pouring over the days leading up to his internment with as fine a comb as his drug-addled mind could manage. It had become an almost comical affair – he would ride waves of emotion. One day he would contemplate ending his own life and waste the few lucid hours away in bitter tears. Another day he would feel a bit of hope, and a desire to live if only out of spite for whatever was going on here.

He could confide non of this to Luigi, of course. Toad never came to visit him and he hadn't heard from Daisy. Every time her name floated across his psyche, the cryptic message he'd been given in that odd dream of his kept coming back. He had to find Daisy. But why? To entertain the delusions of a fever dream? Or was there something more to it? Mario had thrown the bomb toy at Luigi. It sat on her desk. She took the call that led him out to the mayoral estate when everything had gone to shit. Maybe Daisy was the key to all of this.

But then that was stupid. Daisy took all of the calls, she was the company secretary. Luigi fought in the office and Mario grabbed the nearest heavy instrument and when that failed he used a mallet. There was nothing significant about any of these things that all seemed so significant. Or was he just being led to believe there was no significance? Could whatever had happened to the world start to control his thoughts as well?

Well, he constantly found himself shifting between realities, though lately they happened less frequently. It was possible there was a connection. Maybe the hospital was making him better. Or maybe this was the false world and Mario was slipping away into insanity.

 _What if nothing is real_ , Mario wondered one morning towards the end of his stay. His bones had mostly mended, he was even able to walk around a little bit and his vision had almost completely returned. Whatever he was meant to do, he would have to do it soon.

There was also the distinct possibility that both worlds were real. Well... all _three_ now, as the vision in the sewers seemed slightly different from the one he'd been visiting before now.

"Hey, new guy," came a raspy voice with a thick accent.

Mario snapped into focus. He'd been on a walk in the hospital corridor, carrying his IV bag along with him for support. The nurses encouraged him to do this daily now to try and rebuild his strength. The person who had called him was a bedridden man of considerable girth, even moreso than Toad. He was a fellow Italian for sure, sporting a proud mustache of his own and the facial structure and skin tone that almost made Mario feel a sense of brotherhood for him.

But that was where the similarities ended. He was in the standard hospital gown but Mario could see a pair of black overalls and a yellow long-sleeved shirt resting on his bureau. His teeth were crooked, his beard was patches and stubble without any real attempt to groom them, and something in his eyes gave Mario a distinct sense of unease. They were greedy eyes, the kind belonging to a man who would sooner sell his organs on the black market than donate them to a dying family member.

"What do you want?" Mario asked, sounding a bit more rude than he meant, but he made no effort to correct his tone.

"You're walking, you should be happier," he said with a sickly grin.

"I suppose," Mario shrugged. "What happened to you? Fall down during a marathon?"

The man took the mocking comment in stride. "Motorcycle accident."

"That explains your teeth," Mario quipped.

The man let out a horrible laugh. "You're pretty funny for a suicide watch. Guess it must suck to have failed at that too, eh?"

Mario had had just about enough of this man and moved closer to belt him one in his bad leg. The man raised his working hand in a gesture of apology, but his twisted grin didn't melt any.

"You wouldn't hit a guy who can't even get out of bed would you?"

"What do you want?" Mario repeated, not lowering his fist any.

"The name is Warner. At least that's what they call me here," he chuckled with malice glee.

"What do you mean by that?" Mario asked.

Warner looked around. "Mario Saltare. You don't really think this is really happening do you?"

This could be nothing. This could be the insane ramblings of a horrible human being. But in Mario's current state the sudden declaration, along with the fact that he somehow knew his full name, begged further exploration.

"Okay, I'm listening," Mario said.

"Well I'm not saying anything else for right now. If you want me to help you, you'll have to help me bust out of here," Warner explained.

"What are you talking about?"

"This isn't a hospital. It's a place where they keep troublesome people who don't quite fit in. Of course I never expected to see you here," Warner chuckled.

"Why? How do you know who I am?"

"I can tell you more tomorrow night. You're going to get me into a wheelchair during the midnight shift rotation and you are going to take us out the back way, steal an ambulance and get us out of here," Warner said.

"And why would I do that?" Mario asked, folding his arms. This was a lot to take in at once, and withing four sentences, this strange man had constructed an elaborate escape plan which required exactly nothing of himself.

"I have a feeling you will. If you want to know the truth," Warner grinned. He then let out a massive yawn and stretched his free limbs. "The choice is yours, of course. I think the morphine is kicking in, and I plan to take a little nap now. I'll see you when I see you."

Infuriatingly quickly he fell asleep. It was pretty clear to anybody with a brain that he was only feigning sleep, but Mario had reached his limit. The offer was insane. The man was probably insane. There was absolutely no good reason for Mario to do this.

Which was exactly why he intended to do it.


	14. World 4-2: Evacuation

**World 4-2: Evacuation**

Night came, and with it this hospital turned into a ghost town. There was a skeleton crew of nurses and the occasional janitor, but it was the quietest this place ever got. The Emergency Room was always busy, but up here in Mario's ward things were pretty relaxed. The few nurses who stuck around took generous smoke breaks in between shift changes, which left about a twenty minute window of absence to work with.

He pretended to sleep as his usual attending nurse came in to give him some more pain meds, and then listened carefully as she and her male counterpart decided to head out back for some alone time. Mario peeked and saw one nurse remaining at the station, but she had her earphones on and was watching some kind of romantic comedy on the small portable TV behind her desk. Her back was to his room... it was as good a time as any.

Mario slowly stood up, his body a little lagging in response time due to the medication. He eventually found himself right-footed again and slowly made his way to Warner's room. He had to remove his own IV bag, which was only pumping in medicine anyway, and he wrapped some gauze around his arm.

He slowly crept out of his room, careful not to take up too much of a presence, a difficult task when you are a fat man in a white hospital gown, but he made do. He moved at a snails pace down the hallway to Warner's room, afraid that every other step would result in him being tackled by a group of nurses. He saw an unattended wheelchair at the end of the corridor and slowly rolled it back towards his room – the wheels were a little rusty and there was a shrill squeak sound at the first movement.

The nurse looked up for a moment and glanced around her. Eventually she turned back to her movie and the wheels continued, a bit quieter now. Mario rolled it into Warner's room and sat it by his bed.

Warner was very obviously pretending to be asleep, the rhythmic breathing was a little too forced and there was just something inherently fake about his entire presence. Mario shook him once and his eyes popped open immediately.

"We doing this then?" Warner asked quietly, with a sort of impatient note.

"Get in the wheelchair," Mario whispered his tone blending urgency and irritation.

Mario undid his leg straps and Warner slid slowly out of the bed, stumbling into the chair and making a little too much noise for Mario's liking. He did eventually sit on the chair; ineptly and with a great deal of cursing, but the job got done. Mario was not exactly in his physical prime but the wheelchair did most of the work for him as he lugged the massive paraplegic down the hall. He heard a shuffling of padded shoes and the swash of medical smocks on the other side of the hall. The nurses were coming back in from their smoke break – they'd taken too long.

Without thinking, Mario pushed the wheelchair into the service express elevator and jammed what he thought was the ground floor button until Warner commented: "Why are you taking us to the morgue?"

Mario looked at the bright display and realized he'd accidentally hit the B1 button. He tried to press the ground floor button to correct himself, but they glided past their stop too late. The call button for their former floor – the fourth – lit up.

"We'd better get out here," Warner said. "They'll be expecting us up on the ground floor now."

"It could be a coincidence," Mario hissed as the doors opened.

But he wasn't about to take that chance and grudgingly slid Warner out. This time of night the morgue was as dead as its residents, dim blue lighting befitting the somberness of the place and shiny metal cabinets filled with the dead serving as the only things of note in this chilly man-made cavern.

"Well want to find me a good bed. Something on the ground level?" Warner cackled.

"Shut up, you're not helping us any," Mario spat back.

"There's an ambulance entrance on the rear of the building," Warner replied. "Because of the hill you know. It slopes down giving us a handy exit. We'll just be nowhere near a car."

"Well," Mario sighed. "It wouldn't be my first time stealing a car."

"Stealing an ambulance now are we?" Warner asked.

"That's our best bet. Let me see if I can find a smock around here," Mario replied, setting Warner near the rear hallway and checking a small locker room a few doors down.

There was a small chime and the light above the elevator lit up.

"Mario!" Warner called. "We're about to have company."

Mario rushed back out of the locker room wearing a half-tied blue apron and a medical mask. "This will have to do."

He pushed Warner out of the back hallway as the elevator opened up. Two sets of footsteps entered the room behind them with flashlight beams shining all about.

"Hello! Anybody down here?!" Came the sound of what was doubtless a burly and ill-tempered security guard.

As soon as Mario pushed Warner through the exit door a shrill claxon echoed through the entire hospital. The fire alarm.

"I guess this is a fire door at night, huh?" Warner chuckled to himself.

"You piece of-"

But Mario didn't bother to finish that sentence as he broke into a run, dragging Warner to the first parked ambulance he saw and wheeling him off the loading dock directly into the back. He closed the doors and then ran around to the front. He was just beginning to wonder if he would be able to hotwire this thing when he noticed the ambulance already had a driver in it who had been taking a brief nap in the vehicle.

It came as quite a shock to him when he was being thrown to the ground by Mario who promptly took his seat and then took his vehicle, peeling off into the night as security guards came running out to greet them.

As Mario began to weave through the city streets looking to find a nice alley to hide in, Warner had wheeled himself towards the front of the vehicle and spoke through the small window.

"You know that was far too easy," Warner chuckled.

"We nearly got caught," Mario hissed, still maneuvering the cumbersome top-heavy vehicle through narrow streets.

"No we didn't," Warner sighed. "You were given the illusion of nearly getting caught, nothing more. Don't you think it was a little convenient how there was a sleeping man in the ambulance right there so you didn't have to hotwire the vehicle?"

"So what's your point?" Mario replied. "It's serendipity."

"Oh yes, there's an awful lot of that. And the fact that no other nurse or security guard saw you while you went into another patient's room and wheeled him out of the hospital?" Warner continued.

"I don't have time for this right now," Mario grunted, pulling the ambulance down a dark side street behind a bar. The night sky was shining unforgiving moonlight down on their position but the neon haze of downtown was well hidden on the other sides of the buildings.

"This conversation is the entire reason you broke me out of the hospital, Mario," Warner insisted. "It's also the reason I sent you on that impossible task which you miraculously pulled off with minimal resistance. It was the only way to demonstrate what I've been trying to tell you."

"Which is?" Mario asked, parking the ambulance and turning around to face Warner.

"This world is a game. It's designed to keep you in check and everybody in it from the nurses to your dear sweet brother are actors. We were all pulled out of our home world and forced to serve Bowser, because he doesn't want you finding your way back to the real world."

"The real world?" Mario asked.

"The Mushroom Kingdom of course!" Warner barked, as if Mario should have already guessed this.

Mario was stunned, trying to piece together how Warner could have known about that. It had to be a trick. "You... you just heard me telling my doctors about that hallucination and are fucking with me."

"That'd be awfully convenient. Like I said, I was put in the hospital wing for my 'accident' but really it was to keep me from being a problem. You see I didn't want to go along with Bowser's plan so he put me out of the way. I can't exactly spy on you with two broken legs can I?" Warner asked.

"So why are you telling me this now then, assuming what you are saying is even close to reliable?" Mario asked.

"It's simple. There's no profit in me continuing my role as a stooge. I want to get back to the Mushroom Kingdom same as you, but in order to do that I have to shatter your perception of this world," Warner explained.

Mario's head was swimming with all this new information, but he couldn't shake the fact that Warner was not exactly a reliable source of information and that this all sounded like the delusional ravings of a madman.

"How do you know that will work, eh?" Mario asked. "And for that matter how do you intend to prove any of this?"

"I'm going to start by introducing myself properly," Warner said, pulling himself forward and getting as close to Mario as he could. "In the Mushroom Kingdom I was the result of one of Bowser's failed attempts to capture you. He was able to get you into his clutches and he attempted to turn you into one of his servants. But you managed to escape with the help of Luigi and Toad. But not before he obtained just enough of your essence to create me. You see, that's what Bowser does. He can take the people's entire beings and change them to suit his needs. I'm certain you recall watching him turn half the population of the kingdom into blocks?"

Mario _did_ recall this sight. Even after all these weeks it was one of his most vivid recurring nightmares.

"All this time he's been trying to trap you because every time the cycle resets you've been able to defeat him."

"What cycle?!" Mario demanded, growing more and more frustrated, but no less reassured of his conviction that Warner was simply mad.

"It's too complicated to explain. Next time you are 'out' have that Professor explain it to you. All you need to know is you've been a thorn in Bowser's side for as long as time in the Mushroom Kingdom has existed but you've never truly beaten him and he has never truly beaten you. A stalemate that has gone on for as long as we can recall. So, he chose to take you out the equation altogether. And he asked me to help him. But I really didn't want to. You see, as I said, you and I are mostly cut from the same cloth. Except I am comprised of all your... less favorable qualities."

"So you mean... you're my-"

"Brother? Not quite. Think of me as your shadow. And you can stop calling me Warner, by the way. In the Mushroom Kingdom, I go by another name," Warner let out a particularly ugly and yet not unfamiliar cackle. "It's-a me. Wario."


	15. World 4-3: Apprehension

**World 4-3: Apprehension**

"You have to stop," Mario said, finally deciding that he had lost all faith in Warner, or Wario or whoever he was claiming to be this day. "I've spent the past several weeks trying to get rid of these delusions and you know what's funny? Since I've been on medication I haven't had any of them. I haven't been back to that fantasy world!"

Warner chuckled darkly – the sort of laugh somebody gives when you've unwittingly handed them a weapon. "Of course. You haven't had any relapses since you've been in the contained environment set up by Bowser. Funny, that must be some _awfully_ good medicine to take effect immediately and have no side effects or relapses. Do you think every paranoid schizophrenic out there can be magically cured in one sitting without experiencing anything else?"

This was a good point. The doctor had warned Mario that he might experience some incidental hallucinations as he adjusted to the medicine, as would be expected for a recovering patient. But Mario hadn't had anything. Not even a dream of the place. The knot in his stomach tightened.

"I don't know what to believe at this point," Mario shrugged. "I probably would have been better off waiting in the hospital."

"Sure. Complacent, immobile, never knowing the truth," Warner replied reasonably. "But that's not who you are. Mario, you may not believe it in this world but you've always been insufferably noble. You always leap into action, no matter how stupid or suicidal. Me, I'm far more practical. I'll only do something if there's coin in it. I guess you could say Bowser made me out of your side that has an ounce of self-preservation."

"I still don't believe you, _Warner_ ," Mario said, putting a stress on the first name he'd been given to show that he was still thinking for himself. Warner had an inherently untrustworthy vibe about him anyway. But what other explanation did he have that fit all of the events of his recent few weeks?

"Well I can offer you proof. We need to find some way to get you back to the Mushroom Kingdom," Warner said. "Do you remember anything that might be telling from your last time there? There had to be something you did that made Bowser have to take a hands-on approach like he did."

It had been so long, and he'd spent weeks convincing himself it was a dream. He barely remembered anything at this point – just colors and shapes swimming down his subconscious. But there was that one image. The one that felt somehow more real than the others.

"Daisy," Mario finally said. "The Professor told me I have to find Daisy."

Warner let out a small laugh, but this one seemed a bit more sincere. "Now that's ironic."

"What do you mean?" Mario asked, not in the mood for any more riddles.

"Daisy and I... well we have a history. I guess because she reminds me of Peach," Warner replied. "Of course in this world you've been kept far away from Peach for good reason – Peachy isn't here."

"What do you mean? Isn't she the mayor?" Mario asked.

"And under the thumb of the local mob leader? Bowser?" Warner sneered. "You're not good at picking up the pieces of your own mess. No wonder you needed my help. In the Mushroom Kingdom you and her are _quite_ fond of each other."

"I'm not even going to entertain that thought," Mario said. "You said you could prove it to me so prove it. Help me find Daisy. Maybe we can go to her place-"

"No, the Daisy in here is probably just like Luigi – a shadow made up by Bowser. Toad too. All of them are made up your memories of your friends but twisted to serve his purpose. No, we need to find the _real_ Princess Daisy – yes, she's a Princess too – and if she is here, she's probably going to be in hiding."

"If this world is made up by Bowser, how could somebody hide in it?" Mario asked. "Now you're not making any sense."

"Do you have any idea how complex it is to create a completely illusory world? You have to use all sorts of resources and you can't watch every exit. It's how you've been able to slip back into the Mushroom Kingdom in the first place. You've probably been going back by getting your hands on remnants of the real world."

"You mean the 'shrooms I was using?" Mario asked.

"Of course! Why do you think they are outlawed here? And so heavily policed?" Warner asked.

"You're sounding more delusional by the minute."

"Well I'll start making more sense in a moment. We need to find some more. Where did you get yours from?" Warner asked.

Mario rubbed the back of his neck. "I... I have a dealer I know."

The alley stunk of week old refuse, and was barely more lit than the one they'd stashed the Ambulance in. Warner had managed to handle his wheelchair by himself once they got out into open pavement but he required Mario's help navigating the tight turns leading up to Mario's usual spot. The brickwork around them felt the kind of place where at any moment an unfriendly face could pop up from behind the brickwork – and this was usually the case.

"This dude is a little strange," Mario warned. "He's always hiding his face behind a hockey mask when he does business. But he has fair prices and good stuff. Let me do the talking. He'll be jittery with me having been gone for so long."

Mario rapped on the small wooden door of a utility shed, with the secret knock he always gave. The door opened slowly and a small figure wearing a red hoodie and sweatpants appeared in the frame. His face was hidden behind the hockey mask as expected. He looked Mario over quizzically before turning to Warner.

"Been awhile," He finally said, his voice being altered electronically by the box he kept around his neck. "I was starting to worry about you. Who's the newbie?"

"Hey Shy Guy," Mario replied, addressing the dealer by his street name. "I need my usual order. This guy is named-"

"Wario," Warner insisted. He sat up as high as he could in the wheelchair and looked at Shy Guy. "And you'd have done a much better job hiding if you concealed your eyes. I'd recognize those sparkling blue gemstones anywhere, Daisy."

Shy Guy stepped out of the door frame and walked right up to Warner and promptly kicked his injured leg. Warner let out a cry of pain before Shy Guy turned back around to face Mario and removed the mask he wore. Or rather, the mask _she_ wore. Mario couldn't believe it. He was starting at Daisy, clear as anything. Had she been his dealer the entire time?

"I take it this jerk has told you the truth then?" Daisy asked.

"You... no," Mario sat down on the spot. Doubt poured back into him where a modicum of certainty was draining. "The Mushroom Kingdom? Everything?"

"I've been selling you these because I was hoping you'd get out for good. The only problem is they don't take you back there – they just bring back the memories you have of the old days," Daisy sighed.

"Well," Wario grunted in pain as he rubbed his leg. "Obviously you need a Power Star to get him to go all the way back."

"Wait, what's all this now? I'm so confused," Mario felt like he was going to throw up. This was all too much and too soon.

"Look Mario it'll be better if we show you rather than tell you. I promise everything will make sense. But now that this loser has revealed who I am Bowser will catch on soon and start working against us. We need to get you a Power Star and find a way out of here," Daisy insisted.

"Just... just tell me what I have to do, Daisy," Mario said, resigned to this new reality.

"There's only one Power Star in this world. We think he needed its energy to make this place seem real to you. And naturally he keeps it locked up tight. We're going to have to go to Bowser's Headquarters."


	16. World 4-4: Excursion

**World 4-4: Excursion**

The trip through the now rapidly deforming city was pushing Mario to the limits of his sanity. The once familiar buildings now bending and contorting in his mind – hellish obelisks that represented the mere "idea" of buildings. He tried to sink as low as he possibly could into the passenger-side seat of Daisy's nondescript sedan. Wario sat in the backseat, taking up much of the space with his girth, his legs splayed helplessly across the other side. He looked as though a sharp turn would cause him to roll out of the haphazard rig at any moment.

"All we have to do is get inside and touch the Power Star. That should be enough to set everything straight for you," Daisy explained.

"I don't even know what's happening," Mario sighed. "Nothing feels real anymore."

"You've been through a lot," Daisy said compassionately as she shifted gears. "Just try not to think so much right now. It'll be easier when we're safely back."

"Assuming we don't get killed right away of course," Wario sneered.

"I don't know what you're so giddy about," Daisy said. "We can't exactly drag you up the stairs."

"What?!" Wario protested. "So you're just going to leave me?"

"We'll do what we can to get you out once we're on the other side. If we're successful then this whole place will disappear," Daisy replied.

"Fine. I'll just sit here useless and uncomfortable while you all go play the hero," Wario mumbled.

And then they were standing in the middle of the foyer of Bowser's Mansion.

"What?!" Mario shouted in frustration.

"Keep it down!" Daisy whispered urgently.

"But we were just in the car," Mario said. "We were trying to get here and then we-"

Daisy pushed the guard down the stairs, and let out a small wince as she heard the sound of his neck cracking against the floor. Mario looked down the stairs on the spot they had been mere seconds ago.

"I think that'll slow him down," Daisy said. "Look like I said you're just worrying too much. This will all be fine-"

"What are you going to do?" Daisy asked the man in the green pin-striped suit.

He stood tall, with slick spikes of red hair and fiery red tie which clashed horribly with his jacket and pants. He had slightly tanned skin and a grin that split his face in two.

"It's already working, I can tell," Bowser smiled.

"What are you talking about?!" Mario demanded. "What's happening?!"

"Mario, get a hold of yourself!" Daisy said, turning her head to Mario.

It was at this moment that Mario noticed that he and Daisy were being held in place by a handful of Bowser's minions. How had they wound up here. Why was time shifting like this?

"Missing a few pages?" Bowser smirked as he looked at Mario. "Things seem a little too strange don't they? That's a side effect of what you've been through."

The bullet pierced through Daisy's chest, and a spot of blood appeared on her shirt. It grew into a pool which overtook her as the life slowly drained from her eyes.

"Mario," she gasped out before falling lifeless to the floor.

"Stop!" Mario cried. "Stop! What's happening?!"

"You're experiences are winding down, Mario. Everything comes to a head in a situation like this. The medicine-"

Bowser's body twitched slightly, as if for a split second Mario's world was on fast forward.

"-to see what is real-"

And again.

"-but we haven't seen improvements so-"

Once more.

"-shock therapy. Does that sound okay to you?"

Mario couldn't even bring himself to words anymore. He just openly wept and fell to the floor of the mansion, hands covering his eyes as he waited for the nightmare to end.

 _Mario. Do you want another chance?_

"What?" Mario whispers into the air amidst his sobs.

 _Do you want to continue this story?_

"I... I just want it to end. The pain," Mario sobs uncontrollably. "I can't take it anymore."

 _I can make the pain go away. In a sense, I control things here. In a way, I'm your creator. At least I have created this version of you. I might be able to create an alternate version of you where things go better._

 _I could take away the pain. If that's what you want._

"Please. Please just make it end," Mario cries as he curls into a fetal position.

Mario awoke lying on a bed in the sewers. He jolted awake trying to understand what had happened and where he'd been. At a glance he saw Professor Toad looking down on him, holding a small Power Star in his hand.

"Interesting contraption," Professor Toad explained. "An _artificial_ Power Star. Something Bowser made himself to mimic the powers of the real thing."

"Professor," Mario groaned as the world slowly righted itself around him. No time skips. No distorted vision. Just clear, static reality. "What happened to me?"

"You made it out. Daisy was able to trick Bowser into thinking he'd won and he let his guard down. Don't worry _**the treatment isn't going to hurt you'll be sedated for most of it**_ **."**

"What?" Mario asked. In an instant the old sensations were returning once more. And the next second they were gone.

"The treatment to fix your wounds from the other world," Professor Toad said, albeit with a bit of a pause thrown in here and there. "We have to get you back in fighting shape but we can do most of it while you are asleep. You should get a bit of rest. You've had a _**very hard life. These things can happen.**_ "

"I thought you said you'd make the pain go away," Mario said to nobody in particular.

 _ **I promised I would make the pain go away.**_

"What is happening?" Mario asked.

 _ **What is happening?**_

" _ **What is happening**_ , Mario?" Professor Toad asked.

"Who are you?" Mario asked.

 _ **Who am I?**_

" _ **Who are you?"**_ Professor Toad asked.

Mario stood up and ran. He turned left at the sewers and was once more in the Mushroom Kingdom, surrounded by bricks that were once people. He ran past those bricks until he was back in the city. Luigi was there. Then Daisy. Then Wario. Then Bowser. He ran until things made sense. He was hoping to find meaning, but there was none. None of this has any meaning.

 _ **I am tired of you**_.

"What are you talking about?!" Mario screamed.

 _ **I am tired of making things for you. I am tired of trying to solve all of your problems for you, Mario. I am leaving you like this.**_

"What do you mean?! Who are you?" Mario screamed.

 _ **Who am I? I am your creator. Simple as that. I am going to leave you alone for a week. Let's see if you can't solve the problem yourself.**_

"What do you mean a week?" Mario yelled.

 _ **It won't feel like a week to you. It won't feel like anything to you. Because you can't feel. It might seem like a second but I will know. We're going to do this until we get it right. You're in my world now, Mario. We're going to try it again until we get the story right.**_

 _ **One week, Mario. We'll try again in one week.**_


	17. World 5-1: Repetition

**World 5-1: Repetition**

 _5:00 AM_

The alarm rings with a familiar and shrill electronic **tone**. The red digits spell out the time, and the world around them slowly comes into focus. Then moments later the world is a blur again and Mario is hunched over the edge of his bed, expelling the memories of the previous night in a decidedly physical form.

He wipes his mouth and drags himself to the small bathroom around the corner from his room. The florescent bulb flickers on with an irritating buzz **ing noise.** He took a small moment to thank his slum lord for the water – the only free thing in the entire city – and turned on the spicket. A small lukewarm stream bubbled out just enough to get Mario's hands slightly damp before it cut out. He'd forgotten they were working on the water main this morning. He used what little was there to clean his mouth before taking a bit of hair of the dog and polishing it off with some mouthwash.

He took down the medicine cabinet and saw with a bit of comfort the small ziplock baggie sitting in the roughly carved hole. There **was only one left.** He shoved the cabinet back in place and started to piece himself back together. **Navy blue business jacket, white collar shirt, bright red tie that was a gift from his wife, Peach. She was still gone on her business trip, his last night's drunk text expressing his feelings glumly: "My princess is in another castle."**

He looked at himself in the mirror one last time. **He psyched himself up, ready to face the day, and announced his daily affirmation to the world.**

"It's-a me, Mario!"

 _7:00 AM_

"Mario Brothers **Entertainment** , how can I help you?"

Daisy's cheery voice was the honey to Mario's **sugar**. She got them customers, and he fixed their problems. Occasionally he was helped by his little brother, Luigi. The kid was a **special case – somebody he loved personally but hated working with professionally. He always had this sort of soft touch about him that made him a poor salesman.** But his heart was in the right place.

Daisy ended her call and turned to Mario. "Didn't have time to shave today, Mr. Saltare?"

Mario **smiled politely and gave her a nod.** " **Oh just a little trouble with the water. I think I could make this look work though, don't you?"**

" **Now, Mr. Saltare, I don't think Peach would appreciate comments like that," Daisy said as she planted a kiss on his cheeks.**

" **It's a little early for the usual. You should get back to work, unless you want another spanking," Mario replied with the kind of smarm that made Daisy's heart melt.**

" **Yes, sir," She replied, leaning into his touch for just a moment before getting back to her desk.**

 **Mario didn't really love her. She was just a nice distraction whenever Peach was feeling cold. He supposed he loved Peach – he married her, devoted much of his life to her and the two of them had spent a lot of each others money. But it was what it was. He consoled himself with the knowledge that she was almost definitely screwing that Bowser guy she seemed to take a lot of business lunch's with.**

" **I'll be right back, Daisy. Cover for me," Mario said.**

He shut himself in to the small employee bathroom and set to work finishing the morning's futile labor. **He opened the baggie and took it out, his last pill. It wasn't** _ **exactly**_ **FDA approved but it gave him a nice shot of energy when he needed it. He kicked himself for letting his stash get this low, but his supplier, Shy Guy had been having some issues with the local police this month. He'd check on him and if there were still** _ **issues**_ **he could just find somebody else.**

When he stepped out he saw his brother, clean-shaven except for the trademark Saltare mustache. He was young, lean and by the way **he was counting the stack of bills in front of him, in a decidedly good mood.**

"Morning, Mario," Luigi said, with a nervous sort of smile.

" **Hey Luigi! Latest pay-out huh? Cash a finder's fee check or something?" Mario grinned.**

" **You, uh, could say that. I took out a loan from our usual source. Got a bet I'm planning on riding on this new act," Luigi said. "Convinced this young up-and-coming band to sign a contract that gives us a 20% cut instead of the usual ten."**

Mario **laughed**. "Half my **employees** are **genius** , and the other half are **evil geniuses**."

"Well **we** keep **you** in business, bro." Luigi **replied.**

Mario knew Luigi was trying to be helpful and he decided he may as well let the kid do some work. **But in truth, he had absolutely no faith in him. Sure he got them to sign to a 20% fee. But he also knew that the band he was interested in promoting had absolutely no talent and this was just a decision to placate Mario on taking out a substantial loan on something that was sure to flop. Luigi wasn't hacking it anymore, but he'd let him fail on his own terms.**

" **Go make some dreams come true, bro,"** Mario said. He tossed Luigi the keys to their **escort limo, designed to impress potential clients**. "And pick me up a coffee on the way back."

"Sure thing!" Luigi said, before heading **down the elevator to the garage.**

Daisy sat at her desk, fiddling with a small wind-up tinker toy shaped like a **star** – a novelty gift **from a band they had helped make it to super stardom. It was a lovely gesture which meant nothing, considering they found a way to weasel out of the last six months of their contract and sign on with a new agent as soon as possible**. The world was so god damned **greedy**. **Mario was just playing his part in the orchestra of capitalism.**

"I'm going into **my** office," Mario said. "Let me know when Luigi gets back, **doll-face.** "

"Sure thing, **sir** ," Daisy said with a **submissive nod.**

The office was little more **spacious than the lobby area, with the finest furniture his client's money could buy**. It didn't matter. Mario was the only one ever in here, **even his client meetings he always took out somewhere. But he wanted what he wanted. He wanted the best things, because he could afford them. And that was the way things were supposed to be.**

He **looked at the clock, waiting for his afternoon delight. There wasn't really any task he had to do today. A nice quiet one, for a change.** A simple morning, **and** things would be **even** better soon. He leaned back in his chair and waited for **his payroll fucktoy to wake him up from his mid-morning nap.**

 _9:00 AM_

Mario awoke on a patch of soft green grass, his head still leaning against the green warp pipe he'd fell asleep next to.

" **Mario! Get up!** " Luigi shouted as he ran over towards him. " **Toad! I found him! Get over here!"**

Mario looked around. **Red skies and black smoke filled the Mushroom Kingdom. There were still airships overhead, shooting out waves of canon-fire and spewing embers which ignited sections of the plains.**

"I don't remember **what happened** ," Mario said honestly, taking off his bright red cap and scratching his head slightly. **He felt blood. Something had hit him. Hard.**

" **We'll get you patched up. It doesn't look too bad. Let's just hope Toad has some bandages left. Toad! Hurry up!"**

A sudden flash of memories coursed through Mario's head. Toad, a small squat mushroom person with a bright white and red stalk for a head. He wore a blue vest and puffy white pants, often obscured by his chef's apron. While there were many like him in the world, Toad was special. He was a good friend of the Mario brothers. **And he was damned good at healing in a pinch, even though he was an abysmal warrior.** But why was all this coming back to him now? Why was he recalling things that he'd known his entire life? It was as if something was siphoning away his memories; or perhaps pulling them out of his mind only to let go and have them bounce back into place.

" **Hey, wait a minute," Mario said. "This isn't right."**

" **No, it's fine. Luigi's here for you. You probably got a concussion. We're going to have to take you back to the headquarters," Luigi said.**

 **Toad waddled up to them, his medical bag looking rather light on him, and the stains of blood and sinew ruining his once pristine trappings. "He can walk, that's better than half of my jobs today."**

" **They're not Mario," Luigi insisted.**

" **No, you're right. Don't take offense, Mario, but it's been hell out there today," Toad sighed. He got to work slowly, wrapping up Mario's wounds and muttering to himself about the lack of decent supplies in the middle of a war.**

" **We're gonna take him back to the Professor. Is the south channel open?" Luigi asked.**

" **Nah, bunch of damned Para-Koopas dropped some Bob-ombs on it. We lost it for good. East channel's working but there are some scouts nearby. Better take him to the north one," Toad replied.**

" **That's four miles away!" Luigi barked.**

" **Tell me something I don't know," Toad grunted. "You'd better stick to the surface roads. The trenches are all getting burned by that lava mortar."**

" **Can you run, Mario?" Luigi asked, looking his brother up and down.**

" **I think so," Mario sighed, rubbing his head. "I just feel so disoriented right now... and hungry."**

" **Concussion for sure, maybe a little memory loss. You need some rest," Toad said. "Luigi, you make sure he gets back safely, alright?"**

" **You can count on me, Toad! You stay safe yourself," Luigi replied.**

" **Koopa Troopas aren't going after us medical teams. I don't think it's mercy though. I think... he wants us to know that it's futile. That no matter how many of us are out there healing the injured, he can kill us faster than we can replenish our troops," Toad quaked.**

 **Luigi didn't know what to say, and Mario certainly had nothing new to contribute to the conversation. He dragged himself up and let Luigi guide him down the ruined streets and burned grasslands. If there was a hell on earth, it was here.**

 **After about an hour they finally came across the north channel entrance to the tunnel system. It was a small round grate, but they were able to squeeze in by ducking their heads slightly. Luigi went behind Mario and put the camouflage back over it as he shut the grate.**

 **A few minutes of traveling in near total darkness passed, with them approaching what could only be described as a vague point of light in the distance. When the view cleared, and the image of what awaited Mario came into full focus, he was taken by a sudden realization. He had been here before – the sewer system with the bedrolls, and the people all looking as though they'd been through a maelstrom of pain and anguish.**

" **Ah, so you finally woke up," Professor Toad said.**

 _ **I promised you one week. I hope you enjoy this story better.**_


End file.
